AN  INTRODUCTION  TO 
THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL 
PROBLEMS  of  INDUSTRY 


BY 


FRANK    WATTS,    M.A. 

Lecturer  in  Psychology  in  the   University  of  Manchester 
and  in  the  Department  of  Industrial  Administration, 
Manchester  College  of  Technology 


NEW  YORK 
THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1921 


TO 

C.   S.    MYERS,    M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.S. 

THE    FOUNDER    OF   THE   INSTITUTE   OF  APPLIED 

PHYSIOLOGY  AND  PSYCHOLOGY  IN    WHICH 

THE   INTENSIVE   STUDY   OF   MANY 

OF     THE     PROBLEMS    DEALT 

WITH    IN   THESE   PAGES 

IS     PROPOSED 


' 


PREFACE 

AN  increasing  number  of  persons — works  managers, 
politicians,  trade  unionists,  welfare-workers  and  students 
— has  become  deeply  interested  in  industrial  psychology. 
In  this  book  the  author  has  attempted  to  bring  together 
and  develop  much  that  may  legitimately  be  discussed 
under  that  heading.  No  one  will  deny  the  difficulty  of 
treating  this  subject  in  a  dispassionate  manner,  but 
every  endeavour  has  been  made  to  deal  with  the  more 
vexed  questions  in  as  impartial  a  spirit  as  is  humanly 
possible.  If  the  attempt  has  not  been  successful,  then  it 
can  at  least  be  claimed  that  the  path  has  been  made 
easier  for  my  successor.  What  is  not  claimed,  however, 
is  that  this  present  work  is  more  than  an  introduction  to 
an  admittedly  complex  subject  :  the  time  is  hardly  ripe 
for  a  complete  text -book  in  industrial  psychology. 

I  should  like  here  to  express  my  sense  of  indebtedness 
to  Prof.  'T.  H.  Pear  for  reading  through  the  proofs  of 
these  pages,  and  for  making  many  valuable  suggestions 
which  have  enabled  me  to  improve  the  text  considerably. 

F.  W. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  POINT  OF  VIEW  IN  INDUSTRY         .     11 


CHAPTER  II 

INDUSTRIAL  FATIGUE  AND   INEFFICIENCY       .            .  .21 

§  I.   MUSCULAR  FATIGUE       .               .                .               .                .  .21 

§  2.   ORGANIC  VARIABILITY                 .                .                .               .  -      33 

§  3.  MENTAL  FATIGUE            .               .                .                .                .  .40 

CHAPTER  III 

THE      ELIMINATION      OF      FATIGUE      FROM      WORK  BY 

MOTION  STUDY 50 

§  I.  THE  WORK  OF  MR.   F.   B.    GILBRETH    .               .               .  .     5O 

§  2.  THE  TECHNIQUE  OF  MOTION  STUDY      .               .               .  .      6l 

CHAPTER    IV 

VOCATIONAL  SELECTION .67 

§  I.  THE  NEED  FOR  SYSTEMATIZED   SELECTION       .               .  .67 

§  2.  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  OCCUPATIONAL  APTITUDES           .  .71 

§  3.   INTELLIGENCE  TESTS     .               .               .               .                •  .      76  V 

§  4.  VOCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY          .               .                .               .  .90 

CHAPTER  V 

SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOUR           .            .  .98 

§  I.  TAYLORISM  :   FIRST  PHASE          .                .               .                .  .98 

§  2.   TAYLORISM  :   LATER   PHASES      .                .                .                .  .    IIO 

§  3.  THE  PSYCHOLOGY   OF   REPETITION  WORK         .               .  .    115 

§  4.   THE   LABOUR  ATTITUDE  TO  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  .    128 


10      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

CHAPTER    VI 

PACK 

INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 137 

§  I.  CLASS  CONSCIOUSNESS   ......    137 

§  2.  THE  SPRINGS  OF   CONDUCT        .  .  .  .  .153 

§  3.  GREGARIOUSNESS  AND  GROUP  LIFE      ....    l6o 

§  4.  THE  INSTINCTS  IN  INDUSTRY   .....    174 

§  5.  THE  WOMAN  WORKER  .  .  .  .  .  .187 

CHAPTER   VII 
THE  CREATIVE  IMPULSE  IN  INDUSTRY.  .  .  .191 

§  I.  THE        DECLINE        OF        THE        TRADITIONAL       TYPES        OF 

CRAFTSMANSHIP  .  .  .  .  .  .    IQI 

§  2.  MODERN  RECREATION    ......   20O 

§  3.  IDEALS  IN  INDUSTRY     ......   207 

§  4.   CO-PARTNERSHIP  ......   2IO 

§  5.  STATE  SOCIALISM  ......   21$ 

§  6.  SYNDICALISM       .  .  .  .  .  .  .217 

§  7.  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY  .  .  .  .  .   2IQ 

§  8.  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  .....    22$ 

CHAPTER  VIII 
CONCLUSION 233 


INDEX 


239 


An  Introduction  to  the 
Psychological  Problems  of  Industry 


CHAPTER   I 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  POINT  OF  VIEW 
IN  INDUSTRY 

Two  sets  of  problems  confront  our  industrial  leaders 
to-day,  one  set  technical  and  centred  in  the  economic 
management  of  materials,  the  other  set  physiological 
and  psychological  and  centred  in  the  effective  organization 
of  labour.  This  little  book  deals  mainly  with  the  psy- 
chological problems  of  industry,  the  solution  of  which 
will  help  to  consolidate  that  working  partnership  between 
science  and  industry  we  all  desire.  We  do  not  mean 
to  suggest  that  the  psychologist  can  successfully  attack 
industrial  problems  without  special  training,  but  it  will 
be  agreed  that  he  ought  to  be  able  in  his  own  way  to 
supplement  on  the  human  side  what  has  been  so  extra- 
ordinarily well  done  on  the  material  side  to  increase  the 
efficiency  of  our  industrial  system. 

What  is  Psychology  ?  The  boundaries  of  a  new  science 
are  usually  difficult  to  trace,  and  never  so  sharply  defined 
that  a  plain  answer  to  our  question  can  be  hoped  for. 
Yet  at  the  outset  in  the  study  of  every  science  the 
obviously  proper  thing  to  do  is  to  get  an  adequate  idea  of 
the  science  as  a  whole,  of  the  extent  of  its  general  refer- 
ence, of  the  nature  of  the  phenomena  which  it  attempts 
to  describe  and  explain,  and  of  its  relation  to  other  closely 

11 


12      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

allied. sciences.  In  many  cases,  unfortunately,  the  exact 
meaning  and  -reference  of  a  science  are  the  last  rather 
than  the  first  things  about  which  we  can  be  certain. 
Still,  the  preliminary  ordeal  which  must  be  successfully 
passed  through  before  any  science  can  establish  its 
claim  to  autonomy  lies  in  showing  beyond  cavil  that  it 
supplies  a  felt  want,  and  that  what  it  claims  as  its  subject 
matter  is  not  being  dealt  with  satisfactorily  by  another 
science. 

Most  of  us  have  the  distinct  feeling  that  the  science 
of  psychology  should  illuminate  for  us,  as  no  other  subject 
can,  the  essential  quality  and  structure  of  the  human 
mind  as  it  is  to  be  observed  in  action  and  in  repose — how 
it  normally  develops,  and  what  conditions  are  favourable 
or  unfavourable  to  this  development,  how  its  machinery 
works  in  detail,  what  sort  of  thing  causes  it  to  break  down 
occasionally,  and  how  it  may  be  set  in  effective  opera- 
tion again  after  it  has  broken  down.  This  more  or  less 
vague  idea  of  the  scope  of  psychology  might  well  serve 
as  a  compass  in  our  attempt  to  map  out  the  bearings  of 
those  problems  of  modern  industry  which  profoundly 
affect,  as  thinking  and  feeling  beings,  the  workers  in  its 
service. 

We  shall  probably  find,  however,  that  much  of  man's 
behaviour  cannot  be  explained  except  by  reference  to 
tendencies  which  are  not  exclusively  human,  since  we 
share  them  with  the  lower  animals  both  in  quality  and 
strength.  This  means  that  there  is  an  animal  psychology 
as  well  as  a  human  psychology  ;  animals,  that  is  to  say,  are 
creatures  of  impulse  and  habit  that  may  well  be  considered 
to  experience  sensations  and  feelings  just  as  we  do.  Thus 
psychology  is  sometimes  spoken  of  comprehensively  as 
the  natural  science  of  the  behaviour  of  living  creatures. 
This  is  a  good  provisional  definition,  since  it  covers 
both  human  and  animal  activity.  But  men  and  animals 
are  also  mechanisms  of  marvellous  contrivance,  so  that 
psychology  may  be  described,  still  more  comprehensively, 
as  the  science  which  deals  with  the  behaviour  of  man,  con- 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  POINT  OF  VIEW     13 

siderednot  only  as  a  human  being  but  also  as  an  organism, 
and  not  only  as  a  human  being  and  as  an  organism,  but 
also  as  the  mechanism  of  his  self-expression.  Moreover, 
psychology  will  deal  with  the  group-life  of  men  and  the 
conditions  of  its  existence  and  unity.  The  various  schemes 
for  the  organization  of  industry  as  a  gro«/>-adventure 
must,  therefore,  call  for  psychological  study. 

There  are  still,  however,  a  few  persons,  though  their, 
number  is  rapidly  diminishing,  who  confess  themselves 
to  be  extremely  sceptical  about  the  possibility  of  estab- 
lishing a  science  which  will  completely  explain  even  the 
simplest  activities  of  any  living  creature  endowed  with 
spontaneity  and  resourcefulness.  They  will  tell  you 
that  our  sensations  and  feelings  and  thoughts,  and  con- 
sequently our  actions,  are  so  incalculable,  our  motives 
so  inscrutable,  our  ambitions  so  difficult  to  unravel  and 
the  roots  of  our  interests  so  past  searching  out,  that  an 
exact  science  of  human  experience  will  always  be  impossible. 
But  whether  yet  completely  scientific  or  not,  psychology 
has  so  decisively  shown  its  practical  utility  to  the  educator 
in  search  of  teaching  method,  to  the  doctor  interested  in 
mental  hygiene,  to  the  lawyer  trying  to  estimate  the 
value  of  evidence,  to  the  advertiser  seeking  publicity, 
to  the  business  man  anxious  to  inspire  confidence,  and 
to  the  nation  desirous  of  sustaining  its  morale,  that  we 
need  not  blush  for  its  supposed  present  frailty.  If  we 
are  told  that  it  is  not  yet  a  science  with  a  reputation  as 
sound  as  that  of  the  physical  sciences,  let  us  remember 
that  we  have  hardly  yet  entered  the  epoch  of  ex- 
periment 

In  many  instances  this  attitude  of  scepticism  about 
the  practical  possibilities  of  psychology  to  which  we  have 
referred  is  easily  explained.  It  has  resulted  from  the  fact 
that  the  psychologist  in  consciously  constructing  his 
new  science,  and  in  the  face  of  immediate  difficulties, 
may  perhaps  have  occasionally  thrown  aside  whatever  un- 
conscious psychological  art  he  possessed,  in  order  to  be 
freer  for  grappling  with  his  problems,  Thus  some  critics 


14   PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

have  pointed  the  finger  of  scorn  at  the  weird  and  won- 
derful subtleties  of  mathematical  structure  which  are 
usually  erected  upon  the  comparatively  unsubstantial 
data  brought  together  after  an  investigation  into  such  a 
problem,  let  us  say,  as  that  connected  with  the  inter- 
relations of  the  various  abilities  of  school  children.  Such 
elaborate  structures  frequently  are  but  shells  covering 
the  most  trivial  truths,  and  the  unbeliever  asks  whether 
they  are  really  worth  the  time  and  energy  spent  upon 
them.  We  should  all  agree  that  as  a  substitute  for  insight 
and  intuition  such  investigations  are  certainly  not  worth 
while,  that  nothing  is  to  be  gained  in  the  end  by  saying 
a  plain  thing  in  a  roundabout  manner  or  by  befogging 
it  with  technicalities  and  statistics.  Nevertheless,  mathe- 
matical methods  provide  an  excellent  complement  to 
observation,  serving  to  test  and  refine  it  (and  capable  of 
being  themselves  refined  by  it  in  their  turn). 

So  that  while  it  may  be  true  to  say  that  in  some  cases 
— surely  not  so  many — the  more  mathematical  the  method 
of  a  psychologist  has  become  the  less  subtle  and  delicate 
has  been  his  art,  it  cannot  seriously  be  argued  that  a 
psychologist  who  still  retains  his  insight  will  not  be  the 
better  equipped  through  the  possession  in  certain  direc- 
tions of  methods  of  precise  mental  measurement.  Indeed, 
it  is  just  this  possibility  of  using  measurement  in  deal- 
ing with  human  problems  in  industry  that  has  made 
the  possibility  of  establishing  industrial  psychology  as  a 
definite  science  so  fascinating. 

Another  reason  why  the  professional  psychologist  is 
esteemed  lightly  by  his  contemporaries  is  that  he  is  too 
frequently  unwilling  to  quit  the  enclosures  of  a  narrow 
specialism  and  adventure  into  the  fields  of  public  contro- 
versy, there  to  pass  judgment  in  his  own  way  on  current 
tendencies  in  art,  religion,  industry  and  politics,  and  to  say 
quite  frankly  how  the  various  proposals  for  the  solution  of 
our  common  problems  strike  him  from  the  psychological 
standpoint.  It  is  suspected  that  the  specialist  in  mental 
reactions  who  has  nothing  vital  to  say  concerning  the 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  POINT  OF  VIEW     15 

probable  effects  of  new  methods  of  political,  industrial  and 
religious  re-organization  and  reconstruction  upon  the 
minds  of  men  and  women  is  out  of  touch  with  his  time. 
This  misconception  needs  to  be  cleared  away,  and  the 
specialist  should  be  encouraged  as  a  matter  of  common 
routine  to  come  out  into  the  open  and  apply  his  expert 
knowledge  to  everyday  matters. 

In  the  great  world  war  America  made  far  greater  use 
of  her  psychologists  than  we  did.  She  realized  very 
early  the  need  of  conserving  her  human  resources  and 
of  placing  every  man  in  the  position  where  his  abilities 
would  find  fullest  scope  and  most  economical  use.  This 
was  done  largely  by  psychological  examinations.  Fortu- 
nately, America  had  the  leisure  for  scientific  preparation, 
and  was  not  obliged,  as  we  ourselves  were,  in  the  early 
days  of  the  war,  to  use  up  extravagantly  as  privates  in 
the  ranks  better  human  material  than  was  in  many  cases 
available  towards  the  end  for  highly  specialized  tasks.  Too 
often  we  acted,  it  must  seem  now  to  the  cool  observer, 
as  though  one  man  was  as  good  as  another  for  any  kind 
of  task  that  might  turn  up.  It  was  as  though  we  had 
decided  in  the  face  of  difficulty,  unprepared  as  we  were, 
that  one  weapon  was  as  good  as  another  for  no  matter 
what  purpose,  and  so  used  razors  for  opening  packing 
cases,  and  mahogany  for  lighting  fires.  We  shall  deal 
briefly  with  the  work  of  the  American  psychologists  in 
selecting  the  best  fitted  men  for  specific  tasks  ;  for  example, 
as  officers,  N.C.Os.,  and  expert  workers  in  the  technical 
services.  It  has  been  well  known  for  some  time  that  this 
work  was  a  success.  Now,  it  will  be  an  increasingly 
important  branch  of  the  psychologist's  work  in  peace 
as  well  as  in  war,  in  an  ordered  society,  to  help  to  select 
scientifically  the  right  men  for  particular  forms  of  employ- 
ment, and  this  work  is  already  being  done. 

It  should  be  stated  clearly  at  once  that  the  industrial 
psychologist,  though  concerned  with  the  discovery  among 
other  things  of  the  best  possible  conditions  for  securing 
the  efficiency  of  the  worker,  and  though  as  an  ordinary 


16   PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

man  among  other  men  bound  to  attach  values  to  what 
he  sees  about  him,  is  not  concerned  as  a  psychologist  with 
the  Tightness  or  wrongness  of  the  purpose  for  which 
J  modern  industry  is  undertaken,  that  is,  with  any  ethical 
problem  as  such.  It  is  not  his  business  as  a  scientist 
to  take  sides  either  with  the  employer  against  the  work- 
man, or  with  the  workman  against  the  employer.  But  bad 
workmen,  bad  employers,  and  bad  methods  will  interest 
him  as  much  as  good  workmen,  good  employers,  and 
good  methods.  In  considering  the  relation  to  human 
efficiency  of  monotony  and  variety  of  occupation,  of 
the  speed  and  noise  of  machinery,  of  piecework, 
daywork  and  overtime,  of  fatigue  and  rest,  or  irritation 
or  good-will,  and  of  the  other  manifold  factors  affecting 
the  worker  which  demand  his  attention,  his  aim,  then, 
must  be  scientific  :  to  collect  the  facts,  to  arrange  them, 
and  to  attempt  to  explain  them.  So  that  the  antagonisms 
of  employers  and  workers  will  provide  him  not  with  the 
subject  for  a  sermon,  but  with  data  for  the  construction 
of  his  conclusions  about  human  nature  as  it  functions 
at  present  in  industry  or  may  be  expected  to  function  in 
improved  conditions.  If  his  conclusions  are  sometimes 
put  to  base  uses  it  is  not  his  fault.  To  attack  the 
psychologist,  therefore,  because  some  of  the  results  of 
his  researches  may  be  ignobly  exploited  in  the  service 
of  mean  ends  and  to  the  great  disadvantage  of  the  workers 
or  the  community,  or  both,  is  as  stupid  as  to  advocate 
the  abolition  of  the  physical  sciences  because  they  were 
so  universally  employed  during  the  recent  war  in  further- 
ing the  destruction  of  life. 

The  psychologist  is  deeply  interested  in  what  is  called 
scientific  management,  though  not  everything  that  has 
been  done  in  the  name  of  scientific  management  can  be 
v/  psychologically  justified.  Indeed,  had  the  psychologist 
or  the  man  in  the  street  been  consulted,  he  could 
probably  have  predicted  many  of  the  conflicts  which 
have  arisen  between  so-called  efficiency  experts  and 
organized  labour.  Excellent  as  their  work  was  from 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  POINT  OF  VIEW      17 

one  point  of  view,  it  was  folly  to  ignore,  as  many  of  the 
early  efficiency  experts  did,  the  sentiments  of  the  manual  * 
worker.  In  this  connection,  however,  we  may  note 
the  gathering  strength  to-day  of  the  general  desire 
among  both  employers  and  employed  for  the  reversal 
of  the  tendency  which  the  early  scientific  management 
apostles  undoubtedly  accelerated,  that  tendency  which 
was  making  it  increasingly  necessary  for  the  workers  to 
adapt  themselves  both  mentally  and  physically  to  the 
demands  of  the  machinery  they  were  called  on  to  operate 
or  feed.  When  this  reversal  has  been  carried  through  to 
the  extent  that  machines  have  been  modified  to  fit  men 
instead  of  men  modified  to  fit  machines,  we  shall  be  able 
to  plan  the  work  of  a  factory  so  that,  not  only  will  there 
be  no  initial  human  waste  involved  in  putting  men  on 
jobs  unsuited  to  their  ability,  but  there  will  also  be  a 
natural  and  economical  passage  of  human  ability  through 
the  various  shops,  each  movement  or  promotion  calling 
for  greater  skill,  intelligence,  and  responsibility  on  the 
part  of  the  worker,  with  each  new  task  providing  a  greater 
and  more  enduring  satisfaction  than  the  old  one.  Taylor 
and  his  disciples  have  shown  us  how  to  plan  economically 
the  route  of  the  materials  of  manufacture  through  the 
workshops  :  it_is  for  the  industrial  psychologist  to  attempt 
in  the  coming  years,  with  the  support  and  encouragement  of 
management,  what  has  never  yet  been  seriously  attempted, 
this  economical  route-ing  of  human  ability  so  that  every 
process  on  which  a  worker  finds  himself  engaged  shall 
be  the  natural  basis  of  apprenticeship  for  proficiency  in 
the  process  which  follows.  There  has  been,  and  of  course 
must  always  be,  a  natural  sequence  of  processes  :  there 
must  also  be  a  natural  sequence  of  tasks.  Economy 
suggests  it  ;  humanity  demands  it.  In  no  other  way 
shall  we  be  able  to  keep  the  sources  of  life  permanently 
clean  and  wholesome. 

Were  it  necessary  to  enforce  our  point  we  could  instance 
cases  where  girls  from  school  begin  work  on  a  job  which 
calls  for  the  display  of  a  certain  degree  of  finger  dexterity. 

2 


18      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

When  they  have  grown  bigger — and  for  no  other  reason — 
they  will  be  transferred  to  other  jobs  too  simple  for  grown 
women,  yet  involving  considerable  stretching,  lifting  or 
carrying.  Then  later  the  same  girls  will  be  once  again 
moved  on  to  work  demanding  at  a  higher  degree  of  de- 
velopment that  same  type  of  skill  which  they  were  already 
gathering  in  the  first  process,  but  have  since  practically 
lost.  The  soundest  economy  would  seem  to  call  in  such 
cases  for  the  modification  of  a  process  or  machine 
which  interferes  with  the  continuity  of  the  development 
of  the  worker  in  skill,  intelligence  and  responsibility. 
In  industry  as  well  as  in  education,  then,  we  need  an 
open  "  highway,"  so  that  the  private  in  the  industrial 
army  may  once  again  feel  that  he  can  hope  one  day  to 
use  the  field-marshal's  baton  which  he  may  have  in  his 
knapsack.  But  the  problem  of  constructing  such  high- 
ways is  by  no  means  simple. 

Yet  it  is  because  of  the  growing  significance  of  problems 
of  this  kind,  which  are  constantly  arising,  that  industrial 
psychology  has  become  so  vitally  interesting  ;  and  these 
problems  will  not  diminish  in  number  as  the  years  pass. 
The  technicians  of  industry  themselves  realize  this  truth. 
In  fact,  as  Mr.  A.  P.  M.  Fleming  said  to  his  fellow  engineers 
in  an  address  at  Manchester  some  time  ago  : — 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  suggesting  that  the  most  important  of 
all  the  problems  with  which  we  have  to  deal,  and  one  which  will 
be  of  increasing  importance  in  future,  concerns  the  human  element 
in  industry.1 

We  have  suggested  that  the  early  efficiency  engineers 
of  America  paid  insufficient  attention  to  this  element. 
Such  is  our  English  reputation  for  common  sense  that  we 
have  never  lacked  leaders  who  have  sought  to  demonstrate 
its  importance  and  emphasize  the  unwisdom  of  neglecting 
it.  Thus,  Robert  Owen  was  gravely  concerned  about  it 

1  Chairman's  address,  Institution  of  Electrical  Engineers,  N.W. 
Section,  November,  1918. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  POINT  OF  VIEW     19 

soon  after  the  arrival  of  the  Industrial  Revolution,  and 
sixty  years  ago,  John  Ruskin,  to  quote  another  shining 
example,  sounded  a  still-echoing  note  in  Unto  this  Last 
in  favour  of  the  scientific  study  of  the  human  aspects  of 
economics  and  industry.  But  the  prevailing  scientific 
interests  of  his  time  were  materialistic,  and  industrial 
psychology  (the  study  of  human  nature  in  industry) 
was  impossible  as  a  science  so  long  as  nature  was  regarded 
by  the  scientists  of  the  school  of  Huxley  and  Tyndall 
merely  as  a  vast  machine,  wonderfully  intricate  in  all 
its  mutually  dependent  parts,  and  while  labour  was 
organized  on  the  principle  that  man  himself  might  safely 
be  treated  as  a  mechanical  unit  and  as  little  or  nothing 
more. 

From  a  consideration  of  such  facts  as  the  foregoing 
it  will  be  apparent  that  we  may  follow  either  one  or 
both  of  two  lines  of  inquiry  in  our  endeavour  to  trace 
the  causes  of  our  industrial  inefficiency  and  unrest  and 
discover  the  conditions  favourable  to  a  full  working  power. 
We  may  study,  on  the  one  hand,  the  direct  effects  of  modern 
methods  and  conditions  of  work  upon  the  worker,  or  we 
may,  on  the  other  hand,  seek  to  understand  the  nature  of 
the  relationships  which  will  normally  be  established  among 
men  and  women  wherever  they  participate  together  in  the 
adventure  of  large  scale  industry.  The  first  line  of  inquiry 
has  already  been  worked  out  in  considerable  detail,  so 
that  in  pursuing  it  we  shall  be  covering  much  well-known 
ground.  Here,  then,  our  method  must  be  largely  historical, 
and  apology  is  due  to  those  readers  who  are  already  familiar 
with  the  main  features  of  the  road.  If,  however,  such 
an  inquiry  fails  in  the  end — as  we  believe  it  will  fail — 
to  provide  us  with  a  complete  solution  of  our  problems, 
then  the  second  course  will  become  imperative  as  an 
indispensable  complementary  method  of  procedure.  To 
the  study,  then,  of  the  direct  effects  of  labour  on  the 
worker  viewed  as  an  individual  apart  from  his  social  setting 
we  must  first  apply  ourselves. 


20      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

REFERENCES 

MUNSTERBERG,  H.  :    Psychology  and  Industrial  Efficiency. 

Muscio,  B.  :  Lectures  in  Industrial  Psychology  ;  Industrial  Ad- 
ministration (Pitman  &  Co.). 

MYERS,  C.  S.  :  Present-Day  Applications  of  Psychology.  Mind 
and  Work. 

PEAR,  T.  H.  :  Applications  of  Psychology  to  Industry  (in  Industrial 
Administration,  Manch.  Univ.  Press)  ;  Social  Psychology  and 
the  Industrial  System  (in  Industrial  Administration,  Pitman  & 
Co.). 


CHAPTER   II 

INDUSTRIAL  FATIGUE  AND  INEFFICIENCY' 

§  i.  MUSCULAR    FATIGUE 

IT  has  frequently  been  stated  that  fatigue  is  at  the  bottom 
of  most  of  the  industrial  unrest  from  which  we  suffer 
to-day.  Consequently  the  actual  demonstration  by  the 
American  efficiency  engineers  of  the  possibility  of  sub- 
stantially decreasing  the  amount  of  fatigue  suffered  daily 
by  the  workers  in  the  various  branches  of  industry  has 
naturally  aroused  within  the  past  three  decades  a  wide- 
spread interest  in  the  search  for  the  best  methods  ot 
eliminating  superfluous  exertion  and  anxiety  during 
labour.  In  Britain  we  have  concentrated  by  general 
consent  upon  the  elimination  of  fatigue  from  industry 
as  the  chief  method  of  increasing  our  working  efficiency. 
Physiologists  and  psychologists  have  sought  in  conse- 
quence, to  penetrate  more  deeply  into  an  understanding 
of  the  nature  and  causation  of  fatigue  with  a  view  to 
combating  it  in  scientific  fashion.  But  whether,  indeed, 
the  attempt  to  eliminate  fatigue  from  work  will  prove 
the  full  solution  of  our  industrial  ills  or  not,  it  is  an 
attempt  which  must,  at  least,  be  productive  of  some  good 
and,  therefore,  needs  to  be  made. 

1  It  must  be  obvious  that  in  the  discussion  of  the  subjects  dealt 
with  in  this  chapter  and  the  next,  certain  almost  hackneyed  illus- 
trations could  not  be  omitted  except  at  the  risk  of  the  reader  losing 
his  historical  perspective  of  the  subject.  He  may,  however,  find 
the  working  classification  of  the  forms  of  fatigue  a  fresh  con- 
tribution to  the  problems  treated. 

21 


22      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

What  is  fatigue  ?  To  begin  with  a  definition  does 
not  at  all  mean  that  we  are  familiar  with  the  real  nature 
of  the  thing  defined,  but  it  is,  nevertheless,  to  have  a 
guiding  thread  to  help  us  when  faced  with  a  tangle  of 
obscurities.  Though  there  is  still  a  large  measure  of 
uncertainty  and  diversity  of  opinion  about  the  nature 
of  fatigue,  some  of  the  more  prevalent  errors  may  be 
avoided  by  a  little  preliminary  thought.  To  say,  for 
example,  that  fatigue  is  the  condition  which  results  from 
the  accumulation  of  the  waste  products  of  activity  in 
the  muscles  is  to  be  led  to  take  too  mechanical  a  view 
of  its  causation,  and  to  hold  that  it  is  a  condition  of 
lowered  capacity  of  the  organism  for  effort  is  to  be  tempted 
to  envisage  the  phenomenon  as  wholly  physiological, 
and  neglect  the  will-to-work  which  should  figure  promin- 
ently in  every  study  of  the  human  factor  in  industry. 
But  simply  to  define  fatigue  broadly  as  a  condition  of 
lowered  capacity  for  work,1  is  to  avoid  the  acceptance  of 
nothing  but  those  purely  mechanical  and  physiological 
views,  and  to  leave  open  for  the  time  being  the  question  of 
causation. 

It  is  obviously  possible  that  there  may  be  a  fatigue 
in  the  muscular  system,  an  inefficiency  in  the  organic 
forces  concerned  in  the  co-ordination  and  adjustment 
of  the  nervous  and  glandular  systems,  and  in  addition 
a  fatigue  of  the  enlightened  will.  How  are  these  different 
forms  of  inefficiency  related  to  one  another  ?  Can  we 
measure  them  either  as  separable  or  as  a  unity  ? 

Let  us  see  first  what  results  from  a  view  of  man  as  a 
mechanical  structure  set  in  operation  by  the  contractions 
and  relaxations  of  the  muscles.  Muscular  effort  cannot, 
of  course,  be  continued  indefinitely.  This  is  partly  because 
of  the  gradual  accumulation,  already  mentioned,  of  the 
waste  products  of  physical  activity  which  "  clog  the 

1  Dr.  W.  H.  R.  Rivers  defines  fatigue  as  "  a  condition  of  lowered 
capacity  for  work  which  follows  or  occurs  during  the  performance 
of  work  of  which  it  is  the  direct  result."  (The  Influence  of  Alcohol 
and  other  Drugs  upon  Fatigue.} 


INDUSTRIAL   FATIGUE   AND   INEFFICIENCY    23 

mechanism,"  and  partly  because  the  total  store  of  energy 
in  the  muscles  becomes  steadily  depleted  during  continued 
effort.  Now,  it  has  been  found  possible  to  wash  out  the 
waste  products  from  the  muscles  with  a  saline  solution 
or  to  neutralize  them  chemically,  but  normally  the  muscles 
are  kept  clear  of  waste  material  by  the  irrigating  action 
of  the  blood,  which,  moreover,  restores  their  flagging 
energy  by  the  deposit  of  energy-producing  sugar.  But 
when  the  process  of  degeneration  proceeds  faster  than 
the  process  of  repair,  when,  that  is,  the  muscles  become 
clogged  with  the  waste  products  of  effort  faster  than  they 
can  be  cleared,  and  when  they  lose  more  energy  than  can 
be  replaced  in  the  same  time,  their  further  effort  soon 
becomes  impossible,  and  rest  is  necessary  if  recuperation 
is  to  be  effected.1 

In  following  up  our  subject  of  man  as  a  mechanism, 
we  shall  discover  an  interesting  parallel  between  the 
bodily  fatigue  which  men  and  women  experience  during 
a  day's  work  representing  average  activity,  and  that  of 
the  muscle  of  a  lower  animal  which  has  been  isolated 
and  subjected  to  electrical  stimulation.  Thus  the  daily 
output  curve  of  a  group  of  workers  engaged  on  repetition 
work  will  often  resemble  in  its  form  the  shape  of  the  curve- 
mass  made  on  a  smoked  drum  by  the  movements  of  a 
frog's  gastrocnemius  muscle  stimulated  by  electric  shocks 
at  intervals  of  two  and  a  half  seconds  and  made  to  lift  a 
given  weight  at  every  contraction.  The  similarity  in  the 
general  shape  of  the  curves  is  noteworthy.2 

The  characteristics  of  all  work  curves  can  be  illustrated 
from  these  diagrams.  At  the  beginning  of  every  task 
there  is  a  peiiod  of  adaptation  daring  which  the  human 
engine  is  being  warmed  up,  so  to  speak.  After  this  period 
is  passed  through,  the  effects  of  practice  begin  to  make 

1  Expressed    in    chemical    terms,    glycogen    or    digested    sugar 
(C6HIOO5)  disappears  from  the  muscles  during  work,  while  carbon 
dioxide  (CO2),  lactic  acid  (C3H6O3)  and  acid  potassium  phosphate 
(KHaPO4)  are  liberated.     Rest  restores  the  glycogen. 

2  See  The  Human  Machine,  F.  S.  Lee,   p.   12,  for  illustrations. 


24      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

themselves  felt  and  the  efficiency  curve  rises,  continuing 
to  do  so  till  fatigue  begins  to  tell  with  more  effect  than 
practice,  and  then  there  follows  a  gradual  fall  in  the 
output  of  work.  An  interval  of  rest  is  usually  sufficient 
to  restore  efficiency,  but  the  length  of  this  rest  interval 
will  vary  with  the  amount  of  fatigue  to  be  counteracted. 
In  the  first  curve  below  it  will  be  seen  that  fatigue  appears 
sooner  in  the  morning,  which  suggests  that  the  effects 


UNITS 
OF 

WORK 


LUNCH 


\ 


7a.m.   8        9        10        II        12 


1p.m.    2 


FIG.   i. — Typical  output  curve  for  repetition  work.     (From  the 
Human  Machine,  F.  S.  Lee.) 


UNITS 

OF 
WORK 


TIME    — >       • 

FIG.  2. — A  typical  work-curve  of  one  worker  revealing  individual  variations 
which  are  obscured  in  the  curve  of  average  or  total  output  such  as 
that  in  Fig.  i.  (From  Text  Book  of  Experimental  Psychology,  C.  S. 
Myers.) 

of  the  earlier  spell  of  work  have  not  all  disappeared. 
In  the  individual  work  curve  there  are  shown,  too,  the 
zigzag  effects  of  imperfect  and  varying  adaptation, 
while  in  the  tail  of  the  curve  we  have  the  phenomena 
of  an  "initial"  and  an  "  end"  spurt  represented.  These 
variations  from  the  more  general  form  of  output  curve 
(Fig.  i)  betray  the  presence  of  something  more  complex 
than  mechanical  effort. 


INDUSTRIAL   FATIGUE   AND   INEFFICIENCY    25 

Such  curves  as  these  of  work  performed  will  give  the 
intelligent  works  manager,  who  has  similar  ones  con- 
structed from  whatever  details  are  accessible  to  him,  a 
shrewd  idea  of  what  is  happening  in  his  workshops.  If 
his  curves  correspond  roughly  to  that  of  Fig.  i,  he  may  be 
sure  that  a  good  day's  work  is  being  done.  If  there  is 
neither  a  marked  rise  nor  a  marked  fall  in  the  curves,  it 
will  be  a  sign  that  the  work  done  is  in  no  way  exacting. 
A  distinct  fall  towards  the  end  of  a  work-period  will  usually 
show  that  the  work  is  fatiguing  to  a  considerable  extent. 
This  may  be  due  to  external  .conditions  over  which  neither 
he  nor  the  workers  have  any  control,  but  it  may  neverthe- 
less pay  him  to  cut  down  the  length  of  the  working  period, 
or  introduce  a  regular  fifteen  minute  break  twice  a  day, 
so  that  such  fatigue  will  not  be  able  to  make  itself  felt 
to  the  same  extent. 

This  systematic  use  of  the  rest-jwuse,  which  in  its  modern 
form  was  popularized  by  Dr.  F.  W.  Taylor,  the  origi- 
nator of  the  Scientific  Management  movement,  is  one  of 
the  most  interesting  of  mechanical  devices  for  combating 
human  fatigue.  Rest-pauses  during  work  have,  of  course, 
always  been  customary  :  sheer  necessity  has  rendered 
them  imperative.1  Before  it  could  be  demonstrated 
scientifically  that  they  were  economical  they  were  often 
forcibly  imposed  through  the  prestige  of  religion.  But 
the  arguments  for,  let  us  say,  the  seventh-day  cessation 
from  labour  are  none  the  less  effective  when  given  a  new 
and  additional  basis  in  the  results  of  experiment. 

Maggiora  was  the  first  to  demonstrate  by  experiment 
the  practical  utility  of  carefully  arranged  rest-pauses  * 
by  his  experiments  with  Mosso's  finger  dynamometer, 

1  "  In  the  East  end  of  London  girls  engaged  in  the  manufacture 
of  food  go  to  the  unattractive  lavatories  for  a  break  in  their  work, 
and  for  a  little  food  during  the  second  five-hour  spell."  (Proud, 
Welfare  Work,  p.  164.)  To  prevent  this  sort  of  thing  glass  panels 
in  doors  in  such  places  are  a  common  institution  :  a  remedy  worse 
in  its  mental  effects  than  the  disease. 

3  Maggiora :  "  Les  lois  de  la  fatigue  "  (Arch.  ital.  de  biol.,  xiii.  187). 


26      PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

a  piece  of  apparatus  for  measuring  the  muscular  power 
of  the  fingers.  The  scientific  argument  for  the  rest-pause 
founded  on  these  experiments  is  that  it  prevents  work 
being  misspent  when  done  against  the  pressure  of  fatigue. 
The  more  fatigued  the  muscles  are,  the  greater  is  the 
effort  needed  to  continue  working ;  but  if  it  is  made,  the 
greater  will  be  the  time  needed  later  for  subsequent  re- 
covery. If,  for  example,  I  have  attached  to  my  finger  a 
weight  of  six  kilograms  l  which  I  raise  slowly  and  regularly 
in  time  with  the  beating  of  a  metronome,  I  may  find 
that  whereas  after  one  movement  a  rest  of  ten  seconds 
will  suffice  to  restore  the  power  of  the  finger  completely, 
after  fifteen  movements,  instead  of  ten  times  fifteen  seconds, 
or  two  and  a  half  minutes,  being  necessary  as  might  perhaps 
be  expected  to  restore  the  finger  to  full  power,  I  shall  need 
about  half  an  hour's  rest,  and  that  after  thirty  movements 
my  finger  will  be  quite  exhausted,  and  need  two  hours  for 
its  recovery.  This  illustrates  what  Mosso,  the  first  of  the 
modern  fatigue  investigators,  called  the  usury  of  fatigue. 

By  the  frequent  utilization  of  rest-pauses  properly 
distributed  we  can  prevent  fatigue  from  pressing  too 
hard  upon  us,  and  by  arranging  that  heavy  work  is  done 
only  when  we  are  freshest,  we  can  considerably  increase 
output  without  increasing  fatigue.  This  means  that 
we  can  arrange  for  ten  hours'  work  to  leave  us  no  more 
fatigued  than  five  or  six  hours'  work  badly  organized, 
and  that  in  five  or  six  hours  of  well-planned  labour  we 
may  achieve  as  much  as  in  ten  hours  during  the  latter 
half  of  which  we  are  struggling  both  to  work  and  to  fight 
fatigue. 

As  a  result  of  carefully  arranged  and  personally  super- 
intended experiments,  Dr.  F.  W.  Taylor  was  able  to 
demonstrate  the  particular  value  of  the  well-planned 
rest-pause.2  His  experiments,  now  classic,  which  it  is 
difficult  not  to  mention,  were  undertaken  in  connection 
with  the  work  of  loading  pig-iron  into  railway  trucks. 

1  Maggiora :  "  Les  lois  de  la  fatigue  "  (Arch.  Hal.  de  biol.,  xiii.  187). 
1  F.  W.  Taylor,  Principles  of  Scientific  Management,  pp.  70-71. 


INDUSTRIAL  FATIGUE  AND    INEFFICIENCY    27 

At  the  works  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company  (U.S.A.) 
he  took  charge  of  a  gang  of  about  seventy-five  men  employed 
at  this  kind  of  work.  Each  man  had  to  pick  up  a  pig 
weighing  about  92  lb.,  walk  up  an  inclined  plank  to  a 
truck  with  it,  and  drop  it  into  position.  The  gang  was 
found  to  be  loading  on  an  average  12}  tons  per  man 
daily,  an  amount  which  compared  favourably  with  the 
amounts  of  similar  gangs  elsewhere.  Taylor  worked 
out  mathematically  (by  a  process  which  he  does  not 
explain)  the  percentage  of  time  during  working  hours 
when  a  man  ought  to  be  "  under  load."  This  time  varies 
with  the  type  of  work,  and  should  be  less  when  the  work 
is  heavy  than  when  it  is  light.  Obviously  it  is  less  harm- 
ful physically  to  the  ticket  examiner,  let  us  say,  at  a  rail- 
way station  to  be  fully  engaged  for  80  per  cent,  of  his 
working  period  than  for  the  pig-iron  loader  to  work 
continuously  for  the  same  proportion  of  his  time.  Taylor 
calculated  that  during  the  working  day  the  pig-iron  loader 
ought  to  be  under  load  for  42-43  per  cent,  of  his  time. 
During  the  remainder  of  the  period  he  ought  to  rest 
thoroughly  from  exertion.  Taylor  therefore  arranged  for 
the  benefit  of  his  loaders  a  series  of  alternating  working- 
spells  arid  rest-spells.  By  a  bribe  of  increased  pay  he 
persuaded  one  man  after  another  to  adopt  his  method  of 
working  with  frequent  rest-pauses,  and  finally  succeeded 
in  getting  all  his  pig-iron  handled  by  chosen  workers 
(the  less  efficient  being  dismissed)  at  the  rate  of  47  tons 
each  per  day,  claiming  that  his  men  suffered  no  more 
fatigue  at  the  end  than  when  they  had  previously  loaded 
but  12  J  tons  a  day. 

Another  instance  of  the  greater  effectiveness  of  labour 
thus  organized  may  be  quoted  from  the  New  York  Times 
of  May,  1914.  A  writer  describes  his  experience  of  the 
value  of  the  rest-pause  in  the  following  words  : — 

At  these  works  there  was  recently  constructed  a  long  incline 
up  which  heavy  loads  were  to  be  wheeled  in  barrows,  and  premiums 
were  offered  to  the  men  who  did  or  exceeded  a  certain  amount  of 
this  labour.  They  attempted  it  vigorously,  but  none  succeeded 


28       PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

in  earning  any  of  the  extra  money  ;  instead  they  all  fell  consider- 
ably below  the  fixed  task.  Prompt  investigation  by  an  expert 
disclosed  that  the  trouble  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  men  were  work- 
ing without  sufficiently  frequent  periods  of  rest.  Thereupon  a 
foreman  was  stationed  by  a  clock,  and  every  twelve  minutes  he  blew 
a  whistle.  At  the  sound  every  barrowman  stopped  where  he  was, 
sat  down  on  his  barrow  and  rested  for  three  minutes.  The  first 
hour  after  that  was  done  showed  a  remarkable  change  for  the 
better  in  accomplishment ;  the  second  day  the  men  all  made  the 
premium  allowance  by  doing  more  than  what  had  been  too  much  ; 
and  on  the  third  day  the  minimum  compensation  had  risen  on  the 
average  40  per  cent.,  with  no  complaints  of  over-driving  from  any 
of  the  force. 


It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  unscientifically 
arranged  rest-pauses  may  do  more  harm  than  good. 
They  may  make  rest  compulsory  in  the  absence  of  fatigue, 
and  so  spoil  the  continuity  and  efficiency  of  a  spell  of 
work  which  is  being  carried  through  with  zest ;  or  they 
may  be  too  short  and  too  frequent,  or  too  long — too 
short  to  bring  about  adequate  recuperation,  and  yet 
frequent  enough  to  interrupt  working  efficiency  ;  or  they 
may  be  too  long  because  the  worker  has  to  waste  subse- 
quently a  disproportionate  amount  of  time  in  effecting 
a  re-adaptation  to  his  task.  Thus  to  illustrate  the  last 
point.  At  a  bleaching  establishment  the  girls  were  allowed 
three  free  intervals  a  day  of  forty-five  minutes  each  for 
rest  and  meals.  When  in  place  of  these  intervals  there 
were  substituted  more  frequent  ones  of  twenty  minutes 
each  after  work  periods  of  eighty  minutes,  there  was 
an  increase  of  60  per  cent,  in  the  output. 

A  consideration  of  the  question  of  the  best  length  for 
a  working  day  is  another  matter  in  which  the  psychologist 
as  a  student  of  the  human  machine  and  the  engineer 
as  interested  in  output  are  interested.  Much  has  been 
done  in  the  way  of  actual  experiment  since  Robert  Owen 
in  1816  suggested  that  a  ten-and-three-quarter-hour  day 
might  be  more  productive  than  one  of  eleven-and-three- 
quarter-hours. 

Miss  Proud    (Welfare    Work,   Appendix   II)  quotes   an 


INDUSTRIAL   FATIGUE  AND    INEFFICIENCY     29 

early  experiment  undertaken  by  Mr.  Robert  Gardner 
at  Preston  in  1845.  As  the  result  of  a  decrease  in  the 
number  of  hours  worked  daily  (from  twelve  to  eleven)  he 
was  able  to  demonstrate  that  the  earnings  of  his  spinners 
and  weavers  actually  increased.  "  At  a  time  when  Nassau 
Senior  gave  the  weight  of  his  academic  knowledge  to  the 
doctrine  that  the  whole  profit  of  the  manufacturer  was 
derived  from  the  last  hour  of  an  eleven-and-a-half-hour 
day,  and  the  Spectator  set  to  work  to  refute  his  arguments 
by  a  priori  reasoning  .  .  .  the  simple  evidence  of  a  manu- 
facturer who  had  actually  reduced  hours  without  loss 
of  any  kind  was  really  astounding."  J  During  the  war 
it  was  brought  home  forcibly  to  the  nation  as  a  result 
of  its  experience  of  munition  making  without  adequate 
rest,  that  a  lengthened  working  day  and  working  week 
did  not  automatically  result  in  a  proportionately  increased 
output.  This  reveals  but  another  aspect  of  the  rest- 
pause  problem.2  Rest-pauses  of  a  definite  length  are 
necessary  between  the  working  days  and  the  working  weeks 
just  as  much  as  between  the  working  periods  of  the 
individual  day. 

The  eight-hour  day  has  now  been  established  in  most 
industries,  but  it  has  had  to  be  done  in  the  face  of  great 
opposition,  and  the  old  system  is  still  with  us  every- 
where, disguised  as  overtime.  Granted  that  overtime 
may  often  appear  necessary,  it  is  nevertheless  thoroughly 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  25.  The  best  known  experiments  carried  out  in 
verification  of  Gardner's  results  were  undertaken  at  the  Salford 
Iron  Works,  1893  (see  Mather  and  Platt,  The  Forty-Eight  Hour 
Week],  the  Zeiss  Optical  Works,  Jena,  1901  (see  Abbe  in  Gesammelte 
Abhandlungen,  Bd.  3,  1906),  and  the  Engis  Chemical  Works,  near 
Liege,  1905,  (see  Fromont,  Une  experience  industrielle  de  reduction 
de  la  journee  de  travail] . 

3  One  should  distinguish  between  the  rest-pauses  necessitated 
by  bodily  fatigue  and  those  due  to  a  temporary  inconvenience. 
Thus  those  who  labour  vigorously  and  speedily  at  hot  work  can 
only  do  so  for  short  periods,  and  then  need  time  to  "  cool  off." 
The  energy  they  use  up  is  not  considerable,  and  proper  ventilation 
would  probably  enormously  increase  efficiency  by  making  longer 
working  spells  possible. 


30      PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

uneconomic  and  will  not  bear  investigation.  It  spreads 
fatigue  by  contagion  through  the  days  that  follow  it. 
But  if  they  must  be  worked,  it  is  better  to  arrange  over- 
time periods  during  the  days  when  fatigue  is  the  least 
marked  and  the  organism  better  able  to  withstand  it, 
and  these  will  probably  be  nearer  the  beginning  of  the 
week  than  at  the  end,  when  every  ounce  of  energy  expended 
will  exact  its  maximum  usury.1 

As  an  illustration  of  the  greater  efficiency  of  the  shorter 
working  week  a  few  cases  may  be  quoted.  In  one  British 
factory  during  the  war  a  decrease  from  58*02  to  41*02  in 
the  average  hours  worked  weekly  was  accompanied  by 
an  increase  of  22  per  cent,  in  the  output  (sizing  fuse 
bodies).  In  a  second  munition  factory  a  decrease  from 
66*09  to  45  "°6  in  the  average  hours  worked  weekly  by 
women  workers  in  turning  aluminium  fuse-bodies  resulted 
in  an  increase  of  9  per  cent,  in  the  output.  In  a  third 
factory  there  was  a  fall  of  just  i  per  cent,  (milling  screw 
threads)  when  the  average  hours  worked  weekly  were 
reduced  and  fell  from  64*09  to  48*01.  The  loss  in  this 
case,  however,  was  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the 
saving  in  factory  lighting  and  in  the  wear  and  tear  of 
machinery.2  Muscio  says  that — 

A  large  firm  with  shops  both  in  Lancashire  and  in  Belgium 
found  that  on  identical  work  the  output  per  man  was  greater  in 
Manchester  with  its  fifty-one-hour  week  than  in  their  Belgian 
factory,  where  the  week  ran  to  sixty-six  hours. 3 

In  the  light  of  the  foregoing  facts  it  will  be  clear  that 
nationality  and  climatic  differences  do  not  completely 
account  for  this  result. 

It  remains  to  be  said,  of  course,  that  as  working  condi- 
tions vary  considerably  it  is  impossible  to  hope  for  full 
efficiency  by  the  universal  imposition  of  a  standard  work- 

1  See  Kent,  A.F.S.,  An  Investigation  of  Fatigue  by  Physiological 
Methods. 

3  Memo.  No.  18,  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee  (1917). 
3  Muscio,   Lectures  in  Industrial  Psychology,  p.   67. 


INDUSTRIAL   FATIGUE   AND    INEFFICIENCY    31 

ing  day  of  uniform  length.  Nor  must  it  be  expected 
that  a  reduction  of  hours  will  always  be  followed  by  an 
increase  in  production  ;  such  an  increase  can  only  be 
expected  when  the  reduction  is  made  from  a  number 
which  exceeds  the  optimum.  Again,  as  Miss  Proud  x  has 
rightly  remarked  : — 

The  psychological  effect  on  the  workers  of  any  reduction  of 
hours  renders  a  purely  physical  estimate  of  results  inadequate. 
The  distrust  which  usually  haunts  the  minds  of  any  workers  when 
their  customs  are  broken  expresses  itself  unconsciously  in  their 
movements.  If  a  reduction  of  hours  from  eight  to  six  were  made 
without  any  stated  reason,  they  would  probably  think  that  there 
was  a  shortage  in  the  demand,  and  they  would  perhaps  be  slow 
in  order  to  prevent  further  reductions.  If  a  reason  were  given, 
it  would  necessarily  influence  the  result.  This  is  a  seemingly 
insuperable  difficulty  in  attempting  any  generalization  as  to  the 
effect  of  altering  hours.  Even  if  it  were  possible  to  permit  factory 
workers  to  go  when  they  had  finished  a  definite  task,  there  is  no 
guarantee  that  the  work  would  be  done  as  quickly  as  possible, 
for  they  are  always  on  guard  against  the  unknown,  and  possibly 
compromising,  motives  of  the  employer. 

The  phenomenon  may  even  be  more  complicated 
still,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  statement  recently 2  of  the 
President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  that  in  the  mining  industry, 
where  psychological  factors  at  present  outweigh  economic 
factors,  a  reduction  of  hours  from  eight  to  seven  (12^  per 
cent.)  has  been  followed  by  the  altogether  disproportionate 
reduction  in  the  output  of  from  259  tons  per  annum  per 
man  to  203  tons  (26  per  cent.). 

When,  however,  we  have  arranged  our  working-spells 
and  our  rest-spells  so  that  the  greatest  possible  efficiency 
results  therefrom,  we  shall  find  that  we  have  not  eradicated 
fatigue  entirely,  and  we  shall  still  need  to  search  for  the 
cause  of  many  individual  variations  of  effort.  Such 
fatigue  as  we  have  so  far  discussed  is  similar  to  that  shown 
in  the  ordinary  ergographic  experiments.  The  ergograph 
is  an  instrument  similar  to  the  finger  dynamometer 

1  Proud,   Welfare  Work,  p.   159. 

3  August,  1920.     (See  Press  Reports.) 


32      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

already  mentioned,  designed  (usually)  to  secure  and  hold 
fast  the  arm  and  hand  of  a  subject  while  the  hand  or 
a  single  finger  can  be  employed  in  continuously  raising 
a  weight.1  It  has  been  demonstrated  that  when  the  hand 
or  finger  cannot  perform  any  further  work  it  is  not  really 
exhausted,  because  if  the  weight  is  changed  for  a  less 
heavy  one  a  continuation  of  effort  is  possible.  That  is  to 
say,  the  muscles  are  not  really  exhausted  when  they 
normally  cease  to  function.  Though,  therefore,  we  have 
discovered  in  muscular  exhaustion  a  fundamental  cause 
of  fatigue,  we  must  seek  for  the  cause  of  "  lowered  capacity 
for  work  "  not  solely  in  the  muscles  but  elsewhere  as  well. 
There  are  good  grounds  for  the  opinion  that  our  muscles 
cease  to  function  efficiently  not  when  they  are  nearing 
the  limit  of  exhaustion,  but  much  sooner,  either  when, 
as  many  have  thought,  the  motor  end-plates  by  which 
they  are  attached  to  their  motor  nerves  begin  to  suffer 
from  the  effects  of  exertion,  or,  as  Prof.  Sherrington  main- 
tains, with  the  results  of  his  brilliant  researches  to  sup- 
port him,  when  the  resistance  in  the  passage  across  the 
synapses  between  the  afferent  nerves  and  the  motor  * 
nerves  implicated  is  increased  through  repeated  use. 
But  the  conditions  which  are  responsible  for  fatigue  as 
it  is  manifested  in  the  decreased  efficiency  of  the  nervous 
co-ordinations  and  adjustments  are  much  less  open  to 
experimental  investigation  than  those  underlying  muscular 
fatigue. 

1  See  diagram   in   An  Introduction  to  Experimental  Psychology, 
(C.  S.  Myers),  p.  104. 

2  The    student     is    advised    to    familiarize    himself     thoroughly 
with  the    elementary  facts    concerning   the    nervous  system,  since 
the  mental  life  cannot  profitably  be  studied  apart  from  its  physical 
basis. 


§2.  ORGANIC  VARIABILITY 

What  is  the  reason  for  the  striking  absence  of 
mechanical  uniformity  in  the  behaviour  of  the  human 
organism  during  labour  ?  Fatigue  effects  do  not  seem 
to  accumulate  with  any  measure  of  regularity,  and  a 
continuous  fall  in  efficiency  is  the  last  rather  than  the 
first  thing  we  shall  normally  expect  to  reveal  itself  in 
a  fatigue  investigation.  It  is  known  that  alcohol  and 
other  drugs  may  stimulate  the  jaded  worker  into 
increased  activity,  while  it  is  equally  well  recognized 
that  emotion  may  intervene  at  any  moment  to  spoil  the 
smooth  outline  of  a  perfectly  developing  work-curve. 
Now,  the  capacity  for  effort  is  probably  maintained  and 
fatigue  frequently  "  masked "  through  the  accelerated 
activity  (under  certain  conditions)  of  the  glandular 
systems,  the  functioning  of  which  is  closely  connected 
with  our  emotional  life.  The  glands  control  the  processes 
of  growth,  the  digestion  of  food,  and  the  elimination  of 
many  waste  products,  and  whatever  disturbs  us  emotion- 
ally, disturbs,  too,  their  normal  activity.  A  study  of  the 
ductless  glands,  particularly,  has  thrown  a  considerable 
amount  of  light  on  the  manner  in  which,  under  the  spur 
of  emotion,  animals  increase  their  efforts  to  work,  fight, 
or  escape  from  danger. 

A  considerable  body  of  evidence,  therefore,  is  available 
to  help  us  to  understand  how  man  as  an  organism 
with  a  highly  developed  nervous  system  suffers  con- 
siderably through  the  influence  of  noise,  extremes  of 
temperatures,  bad  atmospheric  conditions,  defective  light- 
ing, anxiety,  irritation,  and  other  similar  objective  or 
subjective  factors,  Obviously,  those  who  are  called  upon 


34      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

to  work  continuously  at  tasks  involving  fine  and  highly- 
skilled  motor  co-ordinations  which  can  be  maintained 
only  with  difficulty  will  be  especially  susceptible  to 
nervous  fatigue  under  conditions  of  emotional  strain. 

The  enlightened  employer  is  fully  aware  to-day  of  the 
fact  already  emphasized  that  the  mere  regulation  of  the 
hours  of  labour  and  of  rest-pauses,  though  an  impor- 
tant and  necessary  duty,  will  not  of  itself  secure  full 
working  efficiency,  so  that  he  has  naturally  become 
interested  in  finding  additional  ways  and  means  towards 
the  betterment  of  working  conditions.1  But  the  com- 
munity, too,  is  equally  interested  in  the  well-being  of 
the  worker,  as  is  testified  by  the  inclusion  in  the  Work- 
man's Compensation  Act  (1906)  of  occupational  diseases 
— e.g.  poisoning  by  lead,  phosphorus,  arsenic  and 
mercury,  miner's  nystagmus  (an  eye  trouble),  glass- 
maker's  cataract,  boiler-maker's  deafness,  and  so  on — as 
legitimate  grounds  for  recompense. 

A  great  deal  may  be  done  to  improve  working  conditions 
and  to  lighten  exertion  by  attention  to  temperature  and 
ventilation  conditions.  Common  sense  has  always  held 
that  an  open-air  life  is  healthier  and  less  fatiguing  than 
an  indoor  life,  though  we  have  had  to  wait  until  recently 
to  understand  why.  It  was  thought  that  factory  occu- 
pations were  more  enervating  than  the  occupations  of 
the  field  because  of  the  comparative  impurity  of  confined 
air.  The  relative  proportions  of  oxygen  and  of  carbonic 
acid  gas  and  other  foul  constituents  of  the  atmosphere, 

*  Dr.  T.  M.  Legge,  H.M.  Medical  Inspector  of  Factories,  dis- 
tinguishes three  periods  in  this  connection  in  England  :  (i)  1800 
to  1850,  during  which  the  disgust  of  educated  men  at  the  exploita- 
tion of  workers  found  expression'  in  the  limitation  of  the  hours 
of  labour  to  forty-eight  per  week  for  children  and  sixty-nine  for 
young  persons  and  women;  (2)  1850  to  1906,  a  period  characterized 
by  attention  to  accident  prevention,  as  shown  by  the  enforcement 
of  the  guarding  of  machinery  ;  (3)  1870  to  present  day,  a  period 
during  which  we  have  begun  to  regard  industrial  diseases  as  pre- 
ventible.  But  we  have  not  yet  brought  ourselves  to  regard  industrial 
overstrain  as  a  ground  of  compensation. 


INDUSTRIAL   FATIGUE   AND   INEFFICIENCY    35 

however,  matter  very  little  when  set  side  by  side  with 
other  factors.  Dr.  Leonard  Hill  has  demonstrated  * 
that  it  is  not  the  chemical  composition  but  the  bad  physical 
conditions  of  confined  atmospheres  which  exert  the 
greatest  influence  for  ill  on  health  and  happiness,  that  it 
is  their  lack  of  adequate  cooling  and  evaporating  powers 
which  makes  them  harmful,  that  variability  in  the  air 
is  just  as  important  as  in  diet  or  occupation,  and  that 
a  room  (or  climate)  in  which  the  atmospheric  conditions 
vary  frequently  but  not  unduly  much  about  the  optimum 
temperature  (64°  F)  is  decidedly  more  healthy  than  one 
which  remains  uniformly  at  the  optimum.  There  is 
also  reason  to  believe  that  in  ordinary  temperatures 
moderately  humid  air  is  healthier  than  dry  air.  The 
problem  therefore  of  the  works  manager  is  to  keep  the  air 
in  the  workshop  in  constant  movement  without  causing 
excessive  draught,  and  the  problem  for  the  industrial 
scientist  of  the  future  is  to  restore  to  cities  and  factories 
the  sunlight,  the  open-air  conditions,  the  colour  and  the 
rural  associations  2  which  in  our  haste  to  ensure  progress 
we  have  lost. 

There  is  another  problem,  that  of  decreasing  the  amount 
of  noise  caused  by  the  running  of  heavy  machinery  which 
has  not  yet  been  considered  important  enough  to  demand 
serious  practical  treatment.  It  has  unfortunately  been 
believed  that  those  who  work  in  noisy  surroundings  grow 
accustomed  to  such  disturbing  influences  as  are  more  or 
less  continuous,  that  they  do  not  notice  the  noises  which 
upset  the  stranger,  and  so  are  not  affected  by  them. 
Nevertheless,  subconsciously,  if  not  consciously,  the  worker 
has  to  adapt  himself  to  these  noises,  and  he  becomes  the 
more  fatigued  if  in  addition  to  responding  to  the  demands 
of  his  employment  he  has  to  be  reacting  continuously, 
perhaps  in  a  different  rhythm,  to  irrelevant  sounds.  It 
is  the  function  of  the  nervous  system  to  mobilize  the 

1  See  Leonard  Hill,  Atmospheric  Conditions  and  Efficiency. 
*  We  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  dwell  upon  the  unsuitability 
of  our  nature  for  continuous  night  work, 


36      PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

forces  of  the  organism  to  meet  the  requirements  of  life, 
and  though  this  often  entails  the  inhibition  of  unnecessary 
responses  (e.g.  to  industrial  noises),  and  is  therefore 
apparently  negative,  it  nevertheless  necessitates  an  ex- 
penditure of  nervous  energy  which  accelerates  the  onset 
of  fatigue.  The  unthinking  person  often  expresses  sur- 
prise that  a  good  mother,  for  example,  is  sensitive  during 
her  sleep  to  the  slightest  sound  or  movement  of  her  baby, 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  she  is  not  completely  at 
rest  in  such  circumstances,  but  subconsciously  undergoing 
the  whole  time  a  considerable  nervous  strain.  That  such 
subconsciously  noticed  noises  can  fatigue  us  is  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  in  one  case  the  removal  of  some  opera- 
tives from  the  noisy  corner  of  a  workshop  to  a  quiet 
corner  resulted  in  an  increased  output  of  25  per  cent., 
without  apparent  increase  of  fatigue. 

A  writer  in  The  Times  l  has  suggested  how  the  harmful 
effects  of  noise  may  be  practically  demonstrated,  if  as 
we  say  they  exist. 

Two  shops  or  rooms  engaged  in  producing  the  same  article  or 
"  part  "  might  be  set  aside  as  the  basis  of  experiment.  The  out- 
put of  each  of  these  should  be  carefully  recorded  during  a  certain 
period,  allowances  being  made,  as  far  as  possible,  for  inequalities, 
e.g.  skill  of  employees,  lighting,  ventilation,  and  so  on.  One  of 
the  rooms  should  then  be  "  silenced  "  so  far  as  possible,  i.e.  the 
noise  of  machinery  or  of  working  processes  eliminated  by  every 
possible  means.  The  other  shop  would  be  left  in  its  former  state 
of  noisiness.  Output  should  then  again  be  recorded  over  a  stated 
period  and  the  results  compared.  It  would  then  be  a  simple  matter 
to  estimate  whether  or  not  increased  output  in  the  silenced  room 
paid  for  the  cost  of  transformation.  In  addition  the  views  of  the 
workpeople  would  prove  of  great  value,  for  it  is  abundantly  true 
that  every  step  which  makes  life  more  tolerable  and  more  comfort- 
able for  the  employee  rebounds  to  the  ultimate  advantage  of  the 
master. 

Noise  exerts  its  greatest  influence  for  evil  when  we  are 
for  some  reason  or  other  just  "  below  form,"  when 

Supplement,  April  3,  ^920, 


INDUSTRIAL  FATIGUE  AND   INEFFICIENCY    37 

nervous  system  is  able  to  adapt  itself  to  an  ordinary  task, 
but  fails  when  in  addition  to  what  is  customary  many 
other  disturbing  factors  have  also  to  be  taken  into  account. 
Thus,  a  teacher  who  is  continually  surrounded  by  noisy 
children  is  apt  to  lose  his  original  tact  and  patience  ; 
in  other  words,  the  perfect  equipoise  of  a  healthy  unworried 
mind  is  no  longer  his.  We  speak  of  this  type  of  phenomenon 
as  regression.  It  is  almost  universally  true  that  in  times 
of  severe  stress  or  annoyance  we  are  apt  to  fall  back  into 
the  ruts  of  old  habits,  and  display  an  instinctive  behaviour 
of  which  we  should  normally  be  ashamed. 

Under  certain  conditions,  however,  an  overstrained 
nervous  system  may  apparently  function  with  efficiency. 
These  conditions  involve  the  presence  of  an  emotional 
stimulus  to  increased  effort.  Emotional  excitement  accom- 
panied by  disturbance  in  the  sympathetic  nervous  system 
will  frequently  cause  the  adrenal  glands  to  secrete  adrenin 
into  the  blood,  an  action  which  by  bringing  about  the 
liberation  of  energy-producing  sugar  from  the  liver  for 
the  use  of  the  muscles,  and  increasing  the  rate  and  force 
of  the  heart-beat,  promotes  effective  muscular  innervation. 
Cannon  I  who  has  done  much  of  the  pioneer  work  in 
elucidating  this  subject,  says,  "  What  rest  will  do  after 
an  hour  or  so,  adrenin  will  do  in  five  minutes  or 
less." 

But  continuous  exertion  which  has  emotional  excite- 
ment as  its  spur  is  even  more  fatiguing  ultimately  than 
excessive  muscular  activity,  and  is  one  of  the  causes  of 
nervous  breakdown. 

An  investigation  of  the  peculiar  distribution  of  indus- 
trial accidents  through  the  working  day  would  probably 
yield  evidence  in  support  of  the  view  that  emotional 
interest  braces  up  the  tone  of  the  system,  thus  increasing 
alertness.  One  can  readily  understand  that  as  the  day 
wears  on  and  fatigue  increases  the  number  of  accidents 
will  tend  to  increase,  too,  but  what  is  not  so  intelligible 
is  that  usually  there  is  a  marked  fall  in  this  number  just 

1  Bodily  Changes  in  Pain,  Hunger,  Fear  and  Rage  (New  York). 


38      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

when  fatigue  ought  to  be  at  its  maximum,  i.e.  in  the 
last  hour  of  the  working  period.  Several  explanatory 
suggestions  have  been  put  forward,  such  as  the  fact  that 
fewer  workers  are  then  active,  and  that  a  more  leisurely 
rate  of  work  prevails ;  but  since  there  is  a  similar  fall 
in  the  accident  curves  in  almost  all  factories,  it  is  probable 
that  the  mental  attitude  of  the  worker  has  much  more  to 
do  with  the  infrequency  of  last-hour  accidents  than  has 
been  suspected.  This  infrequency  is  due  to  the  existence — 
in  most  cases — of  what  is,  in  psychology,  called  "  end- 
spurt."  We  have  already  referred  to  this  phenomenon. 
It  is  when  a  worker  becomes  conscious  that  he  is  nearing 
the  end  of  his  task  that  "  end-spurt  "  begins  to  show 
itself  either  in  a  quantitative  increase  of  effort  to  main- 
tain output,  or  in  a  qualitative  increase  of  the  accuracy 
of  his  co-ordinated  movements,  or  in  both.  The  prospect 
for  the  worker  of  an  early  release  from  labour,  the  realiza- 
tion that  he  will  be  able  to  get  through  his  task  with  less 
fatigue  than  he  had  anticipated,  may  revitalize  and  re- 
energize him ;  or  the  fear  that  he  may  not  have  time  to 
finish  his  task  may  speed  up  and  improve  his  efforts 
considerably.  A  favourable  emotional  reaction  is  probably 
responsible  for  a  considerable  amount  of  his  increased 
efficiency.  In  the  conscious  regions  of  his  mind  there 
may,  too,  be  memories  and  anticipations  of  happily  spent 
leisure  which  will  play  their  part  in  bracing  him  up  and 
producing  a  greater  alertness  of  mind. 

A  fall,  however,  in  the  number  of  accidents  in  the  final 
working  hour  may,  when  compared  with  output  figures, 
not  always  be  a  real  fall.  If  we  take  the  output  figures 
and  the  number  of  accidents  for  a  given  day  and  calculate 
the  average  hourly  rate  for  each,  then  the  ratio  of  one 
to  the  other  can  readily  be  compared  with  the  ratios  for 
each  actual  hour.  If  the  accidents  fall  in  the  last  hour 
from  120  per  cent,  to  105  per  cent.,  and  the  output  from 
100  per  cent,  to  75  per  cent.,  then  the  accident  risk  has 
really  risen  from  120 : 105  to  100 : 75,  or  from  1*2  to  1*4. 

Much    fatigue    study,    however,    proceeds    upon    the 


INDUSTRIAL   FATIGUE   AND  INEFFICIENCY    39 

assumption  that  all  effort  needs  elimination.  But  fatigue 
is  inseparable  from  life,  and  the  principle  to  bear  in  mind 
is  that  it  is  the  fatigue  of  joyless  effort  which  calls  most 
urgently  for  diminution.  It  is  possible  actually  to  enjoy 
bodily  fatigue,  while  that  which  interests  us  fatigues  us 
in  quite  a  different  way  from  that  which  is  uninteresting. 
It  is  the  fatigue  which  is  caused  through  a  continuous  ^X 
emotional  adaptation  of  the  wrong  sort  that  is  most 
destructive  of  human  efficiency.  It  may  be,  then,  that 
if  muscular  fatigue  can  co-exist  with  mental  content- 
ment, it  is  this  more  subtle  form  which  is  at  the  seat  of 
labour  unrest.  Our  inquiry,  therefore,  must  be  carried 
a  stage  further. 

ADDENDUM 

No.  g  Report  of  the  Industrial  Fatigue  Research  Board 
recently  issued  contains  some  interesting  statistics  bearing 
on  the  relation  of  temperature  and  lighting  to  output  in 
the  silk-weaving  industry. 

During  a  period  of  three  weeks  when  two  and  a  half 
hours  of  good  artificial  light  were  burned  daily  the  output 
was  10  per  cent,  less  than  in  periods  when  such  light  was 
unnecessary.  There  was,  moreover,  a  steady  increase  in 
output  in  the  period  from  Christmas  to  March,  during 
which  the  days  began  to  draw  out.  There  was  also  an 
increase  of  from  200  to  250  units  of  work  recorded 
during  a  period  when  the  temperature  was  rising  from 
59°  to  65°  F. 


§3.    MENTAL   FATIGUE 

A  study  of  output  figures J  is  an  excellent  introduction  to 
an  understanding  of  the  real  nature  of  industrial  fatigue, 
for  they  reveal  it  as  being  not  wholly  a  diminished  efficiency 
of  the  muscles  or  the  nervous  system  but  a  diminished 
efficiency  of  the  human  will  in  addition.  Some  writers 
who  have  formed  no  working  conception  of  a  fatigue  of 
the  will  deem  that  it  is  necessary  to  assert  that  feeling 
tired  and  being  tired  need  not  be  the  same  thing  ;  there 
is  no  close  relation,  they  will  say,  between  the  feeling  of 
fatigue  and  the  fact  of  fatigue. 

Now,  it  is  quite  true  that  there  is  no  marked  correlation 
between  the  feeling  of  tiredness  as  experienced  under 
the  ordinary  working  conditions  of  everyday  life  and  the 
physiological  capacity  of  the  organism  for  further  work. 
As  Dr.  C.  S.  Myers  writes,2  "  To  feel  fatigue  is  by  no  means 
inconsistent  with  the  performance  of  increased  muscular 
work  ;  the  former  is  never  a  safe  criterion  of  the  latter." 
Here  we  may  conceive  activity  as  perhaps  continuing 
because  of  its  own  momentum.  Usually,  however,  we 
feel  too  tired  not  to  cease  effort,  but  to  initiate  it.  In 
such  a  condition  we  may  well  imagine  that  the  human 
engine  still  retains  possibly  a  large  part  of  its  latent  energy 
and  efficiency,  but  that  the  will  to  set  it  going  is  defective. 
It  would  seem  imperative  that  we  should  form  a  con- 
ception of  the  existence  of  fatigue  in  the  higher  levels 
of  human  life,  in  the  will,  the  interests,  and  in  the  creative 
aspirations,  as  well  as  in  the  muscles  and  the  nervous 

1  Output  figures  are  an  unsatisfactory  indication  of    fatigue  in 
the  machine  operator  because  they  measure  the  efficiency  of  the 
machine  as  well  as  that  of  the  worker. 

2  A   Text  Book  of  Experimental  Psychology,  p.   177 

40 


INDUSTRIAL  FATIGUE  AND  INEFFICIENCY    41 

system,  if  we  are  to  form  a  complete  picture  of  our  problem. 
Surely  here  will  be  revealed  an  important  aspect  of  fatigue, 
and,  indeed,  it  has  always  occupied  a  conspicuous  place 
in  the  attention  of  those  practical  organizers  whose  work 
it  has  been  to  galvanize  large  masses  of  men  into  activity 
and  enthusiasm  and  to  maintain  them  in  this  condition. 
Such  a  problem  is  the  preoccupation  of  the  industrial 
organizers  of  Soviet  Russia  to-day.  The  military  chief 
speaks  in  this  connection  of  the  morale  of  his  men,  and 
tells  us  quite  bluntly  that  a  B2  army  of  men  with  an 
excellent  morale  will  suit  him  better  than  an  Ai  army 
with  a  morale  that  is  low  and  staled.  For  discipline 
involves  control  of  impulse,  and  is  apt  to  fail  when  fatigue 
creeps  into  the  higher  centres  of  mental  life.  Let  us,  then, 
for  the  present  distinguish  between  the  fatigue  of  the 
body  and  the  fatigue  of  the  energizing  spirit  within  the 
body,  and  let  us  be  on  our  guard  against  supposing  that 
when  we  have  eliminated  the  former  we  have  established 
all  the  conditions  of  human  efficiency.  That  we  are  at 
present  unable  to  study  closely  what  we  may  call  the 
fatigue  of  the  will  should  be  no  bar  to  our  admission  of 
its  existence. 

It  may,  of  course,  be  theoretically  sound  to  main- 
tain that  every  form  of  fatigue  has  a  physical  basis, 
but  for  practical  purposes  it  will  be  wise  and  helpful  to 
recognize  a  working  distinction  between  mental  fatigue  and 
physical  fatigue,  between  the  inability  to  set  the  human 
machine  in  motion  and  the  inability  to  keep  it  running, 
the  more  so  because  defects  of  the  "  will-to-energize " 
cannot  yet  be  profitably  attacked  through  the  body. 
The  prevalence  of  neurasthenia  among  modern  workers, 
for  example,  may  not  be  due  so  much  to  a  hypothetical 
wear  and  tear  of  the  nervous  system  through  the  demands 
of  industrial  life  as  to  the  strain  caused  by  individual 
difficulties  of  securing  a  satisfactory  mental  attitude 
towards  the  work  performed ;  the  right  perspectives 
are  wanting  ;  the  machine  can  never  be  set  fairly  running 
except  at  a  too  great  expenditure  of  mental  energy. 


42      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

The  army  commander  who  conducts  a  long  and  tedious 
campaign  knows  how  important  it  is  to  keep  intact  the 
spirit  of  his  troops.  There  may  occur  a  fatigue  of  the 
will — or  what  we  colloquially  call  a  "  fed-up  "  condition 
— even  when  the  bodily  vigour  of  the  men  remains  un- 
impaired.1 Thus  in  1917  the  Russian  Army  of  nearly 
twenty  million  men  tired  of  the  war  in  which  they  were 
half-heartedly  engaged,  and  losing  their  will-to-endure 
relapsed  into  anarchy  with  amazing  energy. 

As  an  illustration  of  how  such  an  apparently  non- 
physical  thing  as  an  attitude  of  mind  may  affect  working 
efficiency,  the  following  instance  may  be  quoted  (though 
we  admit  that  such  a  single  and  unsupported  instance 
may  appear  unconvincing).  In  our  own  country,  at  a 
military  hospital,  Dr.  J.  A.  Hadfield  asked  three  men  to 
try  the  effect  of  suggestion  on  their  strength,  which  was 
measured  by  gripping  a  dynamometer. 

I  tested  them  (he  says)  3  (i)  in  their  normal  working  condi- 
tion ;  (2)  after  suggesting  to  them  under  hypnosis  that  they  were 
"  weak  "  ;  (3)  after  suggesting  under  hypnosis  that  they  were 
"  very  strong."  In  each  case  the  men  were  told  to  grip  the  dynamo- 
meter as  tightly  as  they  could — that  is  to  say,  extend  the  will  to 
the  utmost.  In  the  normal  waking  condition  the  men  gave  an 
average  grip  of  101  Ib.  When,  under  hypnosis,  I  had  given  the 
men  the  idea  that  they  were  very  weak,  the  average  grip  was  only 
29  Ib.,  one  of  them,  a  prize-fighter,  remarking  that  his  arm  felt 
"  tiny,  just  like  a  baby's."  My  suggestions  of  strength  produced 
an  average  grip  of  142  Ib.,  as  against  the  101  lb.f  which  was  the 
best  they  could  do  in  their  normal  working  conditions. 

The  establishment  of  mental  attitudes  favourable  to 
continued  effort  along  lines  of  activity  which  are  not  imme- 
diately connected  with  crude  self-interest  is  an  exceedingly 
arduous  task,  but  a  highly  important  duty,  since  we  shall 

1  We  should  remember,  however,  that  "  misguided  efforts  to 
stimulate  workers  to  feverish  activity  in  the  supposed  interests 
of  the  country  are  likely  to  be  as  damaging  to  the  desired  result 
as  the  cheers  of  partisans  would  be  if  they  encouraged  a  long- 
distance runner  to  a  futile  sprint  early  in  his  race  "  (Vernon,  Mem. 
7,  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee  Reports). 

*  From  an  Essay  in  The  Spirit,  edited  by  Canon  Streeter. 


INDUSTRIAL   FATIGUE  AND   INEFFICIENCY    43 

be  confronted  in  the  future  with  morale  problems  of 
growing  complexity  in  all  the  avenues  of  social  progress. 
The  beliefs  and  aspirations  of  the  workers  play  a  great 
part  in  warding  off.  (or  bringing  on)  fatigue.  A  widespread 
acceptance  of  the  belief,  for  example,  that  the  wage- 
earners  could  never  really  improve  their  status  would 
be  enough  to  break  beyond  repair  many  of  the  ordinary 
springs  of  conduct,  deaden  all  human  initiative,  and  restrict 
their  efforts  to  the  attempt  to  satisfy  bodily  needs.  In 
industry  we  have,  then,  at  once,  to  work  out  the  rudiments 
of  the  science  of  human  economy  and  organization,  and 
see  that  unnecessary  fatigue  is  abolished.  We  shall 
not  solve  our  problems  by  exclusive  attention  to  the 
mechanical  forms  of  fatigue.  But  though  we  may  not 
know  precisely  what  the  more  subtle  forms  of  human 
fatigue  are,  we  may,  like  the  electrician  who  is  ignorant 
of  the  real  nature  of  electricity,  learn  hew  to  deal  in 
action  with  the  phenomena  which  we  still,  in  theory, 
fail  to  understand. 

We  may  here  fitly  reconsider  the  question  of  the 
rest-pause.  Regarded  from  any  other  point  of  view 
than  the  purely  mechanical,  the  problem  of  the  indus- 
trial rest-pause  does  not  altogether  lie  in  the  necessity 
for  discovering  the  quantity  of  time  which  will  enable 
the  worker  to  recuperate  physically.  There  is  also 
the  almost  untouched  task  of  experimenting  with  the 
quality  of  the  rest-pause  and  the  problem  of  how  it  may 
best  be  filled  to  ward  off,  not  just  muscular  tiredness, 
but  nervous  strain  and  indifference  or  boredom  as  well. 
The  widespread  "  Monday  feeling  "  *  is  an  eloquent  testi- 
mony to  the  fact  that  mere  quantity  of  rest  is  no  remedy 
for  the  fatigue  which  is  not  physical. 

J  In  their  Interim  Report  the  Health  of  Munition  Workers' 
Committee  suggested  the  introduction  of  rest-pauses  after  the 
completion  of  each  separate  task,  so  that  the  more  quickly  each 
is  performed  the  more  pauses  might  be  employed.  They  advocated 
as  an  experiment,  moreover,  the  payment  for  these  pauses  at  an 
increasing  rait.  But  see  p.  107. 


44      PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

Bearing  in  mind  that  fatigue  may  vary  both  in  quality 
and  in  quantity,  and  that  a  remedy  which  ignores  this 
fact  may  be  worse  than  the  disease,  we  shall  in  our  next 
chapter  proceed  to  an  analysis  of  the  methods  already 
in  existence  of  eliminating  it. 

Before  doing  so,  however,  let  us  return  for  a  moment 
to  the  subject  of  accidents,  for  we  find  the  industrial 
accident  standing  in  close  and  intimate  relation  to 
fatigue,  as  shadow  is  related  to  substance,  in  the  opinion 
of  some  investigators. 

Many  have  regarded  the  casualties  of  industry  as  in- 
evitable, and  as  due  either  to  unforeseeable  contingencies 
or  to  the  irremediable  carelessness  of  the  average  worker 
in  the  presence  of  machinery.  Such  an  attitude  is  no 
longer  reasonable,  for  we  have  indisputable  evidence  in 
the  shape  of  statistics  showing  quite  definitely  that  the 
frequency  of  accidents  depends  on  and  varies  with  just 
those  factors  which  we  particularized  as  being  responsible 
for  the  onset  of  fatigue — bad  atmospheric  conditions, 
defective  lighting,  excessive  speed  and  noise  of  machinery, 
absence  of  rest-pauses,  general  unrest,  and  so  on. 

Since  science  invariably  begins  with  attention  to  the 
mechanical  aspect  of  its  problems,  it  was  natural  that 
the  first  step  taken  to  reduce  accidents  should  have  been 
to  introduce  the  mechanical  device  of  providing  safety- 
guards  for  fencing  off  dangerous  machinery.  Since, 
however,  only  about  one-third  of  our  industrial  accidents 
are  due  to  contact  with  machinery,  and  since  it  is  calculated 
from  extensive  American  experience  in  accident-preven- 
tion that  this  number  can  be  reduced  only  10  per  cent, 
even  by  a  perfect  system  of  safety  devices,  we  must  not 
only  guard  our  machinery  at  its  danger  points,  but  seek 
out  better  methods  of  reducing  accidents  as  well.  These 
better  methods  will  involve  an  appeal  to  the  individual 
"  selves  "  which  have  failed  or  which  are  likely  to  fail 
to  control  effectively  the  functioning  of  their  over- 
strained nervous  systems  in  response  to  the  stimuli  of 
the  external  world.  We  may  accordingly  appeal  to 


INDUSTRIAL  FATIGUE  AND  INEFFICIENCY    45 

the  human  animal,  that  is,  to  an  instinctive-emotional 
tendency  which  may  possibly  brace  up  the  worker  through 
glandular  discharges,  or  we  may  appeal  to  the  rational 
personality  who  has  been  or  is  likely  to  be  caught 
slumbering. 

Both  those  things  are  being  done  successfully  by  the 
Safety-First  Associations  in  England  (where  the  idea 
originated)  and  America  (where  it  was  first  extensively 
developed).  At  Port  Sunlight  well-planned  propaganda 
work  has  decreased  the  number  of  accidents  in  one  year 
by  50  per  cent.  Twelve  years  educational  work  in 
America  has  resulted  in  a  75  per  cent,  reduction.  But 
the  "  safety-first  "  promoter  is  not  content  with  quoting 
figures,  nor  does  he  usually  proceed  by  the  method  of 
informing  the  worker  that  it  is  highly  important  that 
he  should  be  careful,  but  he  employs  the  less  gradual 
methods  of  the  advertiser.  The  worker  must  be  kept 
alert ;  he  must  not  be  allowed  to  feel  that  he  is  naturally 
immune.  A  little  fear  is  the  best  insurance  against  dis- 
aster. Illustrated  posters  in  colour  which  show  concretely 
and  forcibly  what  accidents  are  possible  and  what  they 
involve  I  are  put  up  where  they  will  be  conspicuous,  and 
they  are  frequently  changed.  In  addition,  a  safety  in- 
spector appointed  by  the  management  (which  has  dis- 
covered that  it  pays  financially  to  prevent  accidents) 
visits  the  scenes  of  accidents  with  a  committee  composed 
of  workmen  and  representatives  of  the  firm,  and  it  is 
their  duty  to  analyse  causes  and  formulate  preventive 
measures.  This  committee,  in  future,  will  probably  be 
the  local  Works  Committee,  who  will  naturally  connect 
up  with  their  investigations  into  accident  causes  such 
factors  as  lighting,  ventilation,  and  space  accommodation. 

According  to  a  newspaper  report,  some  of  the  devices 
adopted  by  English  and  American  firms  for  interesting 
their  employees  in  the  idea  of  "  safety-first  "  are  :  (i) 
Cinematograph  films,  illustrating  means  of  preventing 

1  Cf.  words  of  poster,  "  The  wife  of  a  careless  man  is  almost  a. 
widow," 


46      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

accident ;  (2)  bonuses  to  employees  who  offer  the  best 
"  safety-first  "  suggestions  ;  and  (3)  inter-departmental 
competitions  for  the  lowest  number  of  accidents.1 

The  undisputed  success  of  the  safety  movement  demon- 
strates clearly  that  the  old-fashioned  notion  of  the  inevit- 
ality  of  accidents  is  quite  inadequate  to  explain  their 
occurrence.  And  indirectly  it  shows  up  in  bright  light 
the  fact  that  fatigue,  in  so  far  as  it  is  a  factor  re- 
sponsible for  accidents,  can  be  kept  within  safe  limits 
when  interest  is  aroused. 

Interest  alone  will  keep  the  worker  continuously  alert. 
The  carelessness  which  comes  from  lack  of  interest  is, 
it  is  agreed,  the  commonest  cause  of  accidents.  But  to 
give  a  psychological  definition  of  "  carelessness  "  would 
be  difficult.  This  simple  term  would  probably  turn  out 
to  be  a  label  for  a  variety  of  mental  conditions  and  not 
the  least  important  of  these  will  probably  be  that  mental 
fatigue  resulting  from  nervous  strain  and  manifesting 
itself  in  a  regression  from  deliberate  conscious  activity 
to  a  lower  and  more  mechanical  level  of  conduct. 

1  The  National  Safety  Council  (U.S.A.)  provides  its  subscribing 
members  with  (to  use  its  own  words) — 

"  (i)  Three    educational    bulletins    every    week    for    workmen's 
bulletin  boards — teaching  the  men  to  '  Be  Careful  ' ; 

(2)  One  bulletin  every  week  for  executives  and  others  in  charge 

of  safety  work — showing  how  to  get  results  ; 

(3)  Unlimited    consultation    privileges    from    our    Information 

Bureau  to  solve  your  own  safety  problems ; 

(4)  One  Safe  Practices  pamphlet  every  month  on  such  topics 

as  Ladders,  Belts,  Gearing,  etc.  ; 

(5)  One  News  Letter  every  week ; 

(6)  A  copy  of  the  Annual  Congress   Proceedings — an  every- 

day reference  book  on  Safety  ; 

(7)  Free   use   of   motion   picture   films   and   lantern   slides   to 

educate  employees ; 

(8)  Special  Service  and  miscellaneous  information  as  occasion 

requires." 

There  is  also  the  British  Industrial  "  Safety  First  "  Association, 
31,  Westminster  Broadway,  London,  S.W.  I,  which  issues  posters 
and  pamphlets.  The  Home  Office  also  Distributes  literature  dealing 
with  "  Safety  "  committees, 


INDUSTRIAL   FATIGUE   AND   INEFFICIENCY     47 

Our  brief  survey  of  the  fatigue  problem  will  indicate 
quite  clearly,  we  hope,  how  futile  it  is  to  expect  to  be  able 
to  measure  the  amount  of  effort  expended  in  work  by  the 
use  of  any  mechanical  contrivance.  Thus  the  ergograph, 
(already  described),  the  eudiometer  (which  measures  the 
amount  of  oxygen  consumed  by  the  worker — an  accurate 
indication,  to  some,  of  the  human  energy  expended), 
the  cardiograph  (for  measuring  heart-beats),  the  sphyg- 
mograph  (pulse),  and  the  oscillometer  (arterial  pressure), 
are  typical  of  devices  which  give  us  just  shadow  pictures 
of  the  symptoms  of  the  thing  we  are  studying  and  nothing 
more.  In  spite  of  much  excellent  work  which  has  been 
done  there  is  as  yet  no  test  for  the  determination  of  the 
extent  of  industrial  fatigue  which  takes  cognizance  of 
all  its  complex  forms.1  But  it  would  be  a  definite  gain 
if  we  could  bring  the  phenomenon  of  mental  weariness 
by  unanimous  consent  into  the  category  of  fatigue.  Its' 
complete  disclosure  should  be  the  object  of  our  con- 
centrated effort.  In  its  chronic  and  most  insidious 
forms  it  is  largely  responsible  for  the  disturbed  condition 
of  our  industrial  life. 

1  "  The  question  of  a  suitable  test  of  fatigue  is  occupying  the 
minds  of  many  people  at  the  present  time.  It  is  generally  agreed 
that  the  tests  already  devised  and  the  methods  employed  are 
defective  in  many  respects,  and  cannot  be  satisfactorily  applied 
to  industrial  conditions.  Those  of  a  psychological  nature  are 
usually  so  different  in  method  and  material  from  the  fatiguing 
industrial  processes,  that  the  abrupt  change  in  conditions  caused 
by  the  application  of  such  tests  either  during  or  at  the  end  of  a 
working  day  may  enable  the  worker  to  perform  them  with  renewed 
interest  and  energy,  and  consequently  give  rise  to  entirely  mis- 
leading results.  In  any  case,  there  must  be  a  considerable  number 
of  preliminary  trials  in  order  to  overcome  the  effects  of  unfamiliarity 
and  practice.  The  existing  physiological  tests  appear  to  be  equally 
unsuitable  and  unreliable,  those  which  seem  to  give  the  best 
results  being  more  suitable  for  the  laboratory  than  the  factory  " 
(S.  Wyatt,  British  Journal  of  Psychology,  x.  293). 


48       PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

ADDENDUM 

As  indicative  of  the  complexity  of  our  subject  we  set 
out  below  the  various  factors  calling  for  study  which 
Dr.  P.  S.  Florence  has  tabulated  in  his  Use  of  Factory 
Statistics  in  the  Investigation  of  Industrial  Fatigue. 

SCHEDULE  OF  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS. 
I.  Length  and  Intensity  of  Activity. 
II.  Factory  Conditions  :    Hygiene  and  Employment  Management. 

A.  Physical :   Time  and  Place  of  Work. 

1 .  Air :  Temperature  and  Humidity ;  Ventilation  and  Room 

Space  ;  Dust  and  Fumes,  Exhaust  Systems  ;  Smell. 

2.  Light :    Volume,   Concentration,   Glare. 

3.  Noise  :    Volume,    Irregularity,   Vibration. 

4.  Accident  Hazards  :    Safety  Devices  ;    First  Aid. 

5.  Feeding  :     Sale  of  Food  ;     Equipment ;     Service. 

6.  Sanitation  :    Drinking  Water  ;    Rest  Rooms  ;    Baths. 

B.  Social  and  Economic. 

1.  Flow  of  Work.     Depressions  and  Rush  Orders.   Routing. 

2.  Creation  of  Staff.     Appointment  and  Dismissal.     Per- 

manency   of     Tenure.     Unemployment.     Instruction 
and  Supervision. 

3.  Maintenance  of  Production. 

Incentives  :    Natural  interest  in  work.     Scale,  method 

and   assurance  of  wage  payment. 
Discipline. 

III.  Nature  of  the  Work. 

IV.  Type  of  Workers. 

A.  Sex.     Age.     Race. 

B.  Experience.     Date    of    Entering    Industry    and    Factory. 

Former  Occupations. 

C.  Habits  and  Home  Conditions. 

1.  The  Amount  and  Use  of  Earnings.     Thrift. 
Food  :    Diet  and  Time  of  Meals. 
Stimulants  :    Alcohol  and  Tobacco. 

Sleep    and    Recreation :     House    Accommodation    and 

Hygiene. 
Support  of  Dependents. 

2.  Method  and  Length  of  Transit  from  Home  to  Work. 

3.  Duties  outside  Factory   (Housework  of  Women,  etc.). 

4.  Sexual  and  Family  Relations. 

D.  Point  of  View  ("  Animus  ").     Trade-Unionism,  Patriotism, 

Economic    Self-interest,    Herd-Instinct,    etc.,    General 
Intelligence, 


INDUSTRIAL  FATIGUE  AND   INEFFICIENCY    49 

REFERENCES 

BOGARDUS,  E.  S.  :  Fatigue  and  Industrial  Accidents  (American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  1912). 

BRANDEIS,  L.  D.,  and  GOLDMARK,  J.  C. :  Case  against  Night  Work 
for  Women. 

"  Comparison  of  an  Eight-hour  and  a  Ten-hour  Plant  "  (Public 
Health  Bulletin  No.  106,  Washington,  U.S.A.  Government  Print- 
ing Office). 

GOLDMARK,  J.  C.  :   Fatigue  and  Efficiency. 

Health  of  Munition  Workers'  Committee  Reports. 

HILL,  LEONARD  :  Atmospheric  Conditions  and  Efficiency  (in  In- 
dustrial Administration,  Manch.  Univ.  Press). 

IOTEYKO,  JOSEFA  \    Science  of  Labour  and  Organization. 

KENT,  A.  F.  STANLEY  :  Interim  Reports  on  an  Investigation  of 
Industrial  Fatigue  by  Physiological  Methods. 

LEE,  F.  S.  :    The  Human  Machine. 

Mosso,  A.  :   Fatigue. 

MYERS,  C.  S.  :  Mind  and  Work ;  Text  Book  of  Experimental 
Psychology. 

PROUD,  E. :   Welfare  Work. 

RIVERS,  W.  H.  R.  :  Influence  of  Alcohol  and  Other  Drugs  on  Fatigue. 

SHERRINGTON,  C.  S.  :  Integrative  Action  of  the  Nervous  System. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  ELIMINATION  OF  FATIGUE  THROUGH 
MOTION  STUDY ' 

§  i.  THE  WORK  OF  MR.   F    B.  GILBRETH 

No  one  at  this  stage  will  deny  that  a  great  deal  of  indus- 
trial work  is  quite  unnecessarily  fatiguing  and  that  a 
little  forethought  would  eliminate  the  larger  proportion 
of  that  which  is  due  to  ignorance  and  carelessness.  In 
this  connection  the  investigator  who  has  probably  done 
more  than  anyone  else  to  introduce  anti-fatigue  devices 
into  industry,  and  whose  work  has  consequently  aroused 
the  greatest  interest  and  fiercest  controversy,  is  Mr.  F.  B. 
Gilbreth,  an  American  engineer  born  in  1868.  He  came 
under  the  full  influence  of  the  late  Dr.  F.  W.  Taylor  in 
1906,  and  since  then  he  has  devoted  himself  whole- 
heartedly to  furthering  the  scientific  management  move- 
ment, making  good  many  of  the  deficiencies  of  his  master's 
work.  But  as  early  as  1892  he  had  received  a  silver  medal 
for  devices  which  reduced  considerably  the  fatigue  of 
bricklayers  at  their  work.  Gilbreth's  analysis  and  im- 
provement of  the  bricklayer's  art  *  has  excited  wide- 
spread admiration  and  brought  him  an  international 
reputation,  so  that  we  ought  to  study  his  methods  closely. 
They  were  the  mature  fruit  of  the  seed  sown  by  Taylor 
in  his  time-and-motion  experiments  carried  out  with  the 
aid  of  the  stop-watch. 

1  See  footnote,  p.  21. 
3  See  Bricklaying  System, 
so 


THE  ELIMINATION  OF  FATIGUE  51 

During  his  preliminary  observations  of  the  habits  of 
work  of  several  representative  bricklayers,  Gilbreth  dis- 
covered to  his  astonishment  that  they  were  all  performing 
thousands  of  times  a  day  movements  which  were  exceed- 
ingly laborious  and  yet  utterly  unnecessary  ;  like  Taylor's 
pig-iron  loaders,  they  often  put  themselves  unnecessarily 
"  under  load "  and  tired  themselves  when  there  was 
no  real  occasion  for  doing  so.  Bricklaying  is  one  of  the 
oldest  of  human  occupations,  and  yet  for  centuries  those 
who  have  followed  it  have  been  content  without  excep- 
tion to  stoop  down  to  the  level  of  the  earth  every  time 
they  needed  a  brick  or  a  trowel  of  mortar,  thus  lowering 
and  raising  continually  through  a  space  of  two  feet  or  so 
a  hundredweight  and  a  half  of  "  bricklayer  "  each,  not  to 
speak  of  tools  and  materials.  Now,  while  picking  up 
bricks  and  mortar  from  the  ground  may  be  excellent 
exercise,  when  taken  in  moderation,  for  the  abdominal 
muscles,  it  is  not  the  form  of  activity  for  which  the  brick- 
layer is  chiefly  paid,  nor  is  it  the  sort  of  performance 
which  gives  the  bricklayer  himself  any  great  pleasure. 

Gilbreth  was  the  first  man  to  do  what  we  all  now  see 
to  be  the  common-sense  thing  as  a  means  of  cutting  out 
this  obviously  unnecessary  exertion.  He  had  adjustable 
scaffolds  constructed  by  which  the  unfinished  brickwork 
could  be  kept  constant  in  height  relatively  to  the  brick- 
layer, and  on  this  adjustable  scaffold  he  arranged  for 
the  loose  bricks  to  be  placed,  and  contrived  that  these, 
the  mortar-box,  the  bricklayer  himself  and  the  wall 
should  be  set  in  such  relation  that  there  was  no  need  for 
the  worker  to  do  more  than  move  his  arms  and  hands, 
and  the  parts  of  the  body  involved  in  their  use.  By 
attending  carefully,  too,  to  the  consistency  of  the  mortar 
(which  was  subsequently  standardized  in  the  most  con- 
veniently even  form)  Gilbreth  ensured  an  exacter  and 
easier  method  of  securing  the  proper  thickness  of  spaces 
when  the  bricks  were  placed  in  position,  his  workers 
being  taught  to  press  the  bricks  into  correct  relation  with 
their  free  hand  instead  of  wasting  energy  in  knocking 


52      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 


THE  GILBRETH  SCAFFOLD. 

The  Gilbreth  scaffold  consists  of  three  platforms,  for  bricklayer, 
tender  and  materials  respectively. 

The  bricklayer's  platform  is  at  such  a  height  that  he  can  lay 
bricks  or  mortar  without  stooping  or  reaching  upwards. 

The  bricks  and  mortar  are  carried  on  the  stock  platform  at  the 
height  of  the  wall. 

The  tender's  platform  is  on  the  outside  of  the  scaffold  and  is 
three  planks  wide,  so  that  wheelbarrows  may  be  taken  along  it. 
The  labourer  places  the  bricks  from  his  barrow  in  small  piles  along 
the  stock  platform. 

All  three  platforms  are  raised  together  as  the  walls  grow  by 
means  of  the  rack  and  jack  seen  on  the  right. 

This  type  of  scaffold  can  be  set  up  and  taken  down  more  quickly 
than  any  other  form. 

Being  made  of  parts  which  fit  together  and  which  are  used  again 
and  again,  no  damage  of  material  is  necessary  in  taking  apart 
and  re-assembling. 

It  secures  better  workmanship  because  the  bricklayer  is  always 
at  a  proper  height  in  relation  to  the  top  of  the  wall,  and  thus  elim- 
inates and  cuts  out  much  of  the  fatigue  caused  by  this  work. 

THE  FOUNTAIN  TROWEL. 

An  improved  form  of  fountain  trowel  is  in  use.  By  means  of 
this,  mortar  for  twenty-five  to  thirty  bricks  can  be  spread  in  five 
seconds. 

Photograph  by  permission  of  Dr.  A.  F.  Stanley  Kent,  Director 
Dept.  of  Industrial  Administration,  Manchester  College  of  Technology. 


To  face  p,  52. 


THE   ELIMINATION   OF   FATIGUE  53 

them  repeatedly  and  often  unevenly  in  the  traditional 
manner  with  the  handle  of  the  trowel. 

Gilbreth  noticed,  moreover,  as  a  defect  of  the  traditional 
method  the  waste  of  time  and  attention  involved  on  the 
part  of  the  bricklayer  when  he  had  to  turn  about  the 
brick  he  picked  up  in  order  to  discover  the  best  face  for 
forward  display.  The  bricks  were  therefore  placed  out  for 
him  by  an  unskilled  labourer  with  the  best  faces  already 
upward.  The  duty  of  this  labourer  was  to  bring  the 
bricks  in  "  packets  "  of  eighteen  to  the  scaffold-table  and 
put  them  within  easy  reach  of  the  bricklayer's  hands. 
Mr.  Gilbreth  also  saw  that  further  effort  was  wasted  when 
two  separate  actions  were  performed  each  time  the  brick- 
layers needed  bricks  and  mortar.  The  men  were  conse- 
quently taught  to  pick  up  simultaneously  the  brick  in 
one  hand  and  the  trowel  in  the  other.  We  shall  return 
to  this  point  later. 

According  to  Gilbreth  the  time-honoured  method  of 
laying  bricks  necessitated  the  performance  of  eighteen 
separate  movements,  whereas  the  bricklayers  whom  he 
trained  were  able  to  dispense  with  no  less  than  thirteen 
of  these  movements  (of  which  some  were  extremely 
fatiguing),  and  lay  bricks  efficiently  in  five  easy  movements. 
In  one  case,  we  read  with  astonishment,  bricks  were 
even  laid  in  two  movements.  (?)  The  resulting  increase  in 
output  was,  as  may  be  expected,  a  marked  one.  Brick- 
layers who  had  been  forced  in  using  the  traditional  method 
to  work  right  up  to  the  extreme  limit  of  their  capacity, 
in  order  to  complete  a  tally  of  1,000  bricks  a  day,  could 
lay,  by  the  Gilbreth  method,  2,700  bricks  a  day  with 
comparative  ease. 

Fundamentally,  the  basis  of  the  new  method  was,  as 
we  have  seen,  to  divide  the  movements  of  the  bricklayer 
into  those  which  were  essential  to  good  work  and  those 
which  were  unessential,  to  eliminate  the  unnecessary 
movements,  and  to  improve  by  re-synthesis  the  essential 
movements  for  use  in  a  standardized  method. 

Gilbreth  studied  in  the  same  orderly  manner  the  work 


54      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

of  the  mechanics  who  were  employed  by  the  New  England 
Butt  Co.1  in  assembling  the  machines  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  braid.  This  work  had  never  previously  been 
studied  as  a  problem  of  efficiency.  The  base  group 
of  the  machine  'parts  had  been  assembled  in  slipshod 
manner  on  a  low  table.  The  parts  when  not  in  use 
had  been  placed  aside  in  loose  unsystematic  fashion  and 
just  allowed  to  lie  about,  and  the  worker  had  picked  up 
his  tools  as  he  needed  them  from  floor  or  bench,  where- 
ever  they  happened  to  be,  He  was  consequently  often 
forced  to  waste  time,  thought  and  effort  in  searching 
for  the  part  or  tool  he  needed  just  as  we  might  search 
in  a  box  full  of  assorted  buttons  for  one  particular  variety. 
Gilbreth  conceived  the  problem  before  him  as  being  : 

(i)  To  make  the  table  of  the  most  convenient  height  and  shape 
to  hold  the  tools  and  the  base  group  as  it  grew  while  being  as- 
sembled. (2)  To  provide  the  most  convenient  temporary  resting- 
place  for  the  tools  and  the  various  parts  before  they  were  carried 
to  the  final  position  of  assembly.4 

The  new  method  elaborated  and  standardized  by 
Gilbreth  involved  the  use  of  a  bench,  convenient  from 
the  worker's  point  of  view  in  size  and  height,  and  a  lattice- 
work holder  or  "  packet  "  which  could  hold  the  parts, 
by  means  of  pockets,  hooks  and  other  supports.  The 
base  of  the  braider  was  placed  on  the  bench,  and  as  a 
preliminary  the  whole  was  taken  to  pieces  and  placed  out 
on  the  bench  in  order  of  handling,  then  put  away  in  reverse 
order  into  a  specially  constructed  packet  in  such  a  manner 
that  each  part  was  easily  recognized,  and  could  therefore 
be  moved  to  its  position  in  the  base  group  by  the  shortest 
possible  path,  while  the  systematic  arrangement  of  the  parts 
in  the  order  in  which  they  had  to  be  used  suggested  the 
obvious  sequence  of  their  use.  The  effect  of  standardizing 
the  procedure  was  to  eliminate  a  surprising  amount  of 
fatigue  and  indecision,  and  whereas  by  the  old  method, 

1  Gilbreth,  Fatigue  Study,  pp.  134  et  seq. 
a  Gilbreth,  op.  cit.,  p.   134. 


THE  ELIMINATION   OF  FATIGUE  55 

or  rather  lack  of  method,  the  assembly  of  eighteen  base 
groups  was  considered  a  good  day's  work,  by  the  new 
method  it  was  found  possible  to  assemble  as  many  as  sixty- 
six  daily  without  any  greater  fatigue.  It  is  interesting  to 
note,  too,  as  an  illustration  of  a  fact  which  Gilbreth 
repeatedly  insists  upon  (viz.  that  motion  study  kindles 
interest  among  the  workers  themselves  in  economizing 
movement),  that  there  was  afterwards  invented  by  the 
mechanics  whom  Gilbreth  taught  an  additional  device 
for  taking  the  parts  and  carrying  them  by  their  own 
weight  along  a  sliding  groove  to  the  next  most  convenient 
position  of  rest,  thus  obviating  the  need  of  carrying  them. 
The  principle  is  capable  of  extension.  Thus  an  economy 
could  be  effected  in  the  printing  trade  by  the  modifica- 
tion of  the  type  which  would  allow  the  compositor  to 
Jeel  with  his  fingers  whether  his  letters  were  right  way  up. 
Gilbreth's  general  method  of  attacking  the  fatigue 
elimination  problem  has  attracted,  and  deserves  the 
attention  of  all  those  interested  in  studying  industrial 
conditions.  Over  and  over  again  we  find  him  approaching 
the  problem  with  uncanny  insight,  and  even  those  who 
quarrel  about  his  conclusions  are  obliged  to  confess  an 
admiration  of  his  methods.  Noting  the  fact  that  it  is 
easy  to  make  external  changes  which  never  touch  the 
underlying  cause  of  evil,  he  says, 

Worth-while  permanent  fatigue  elimination  goes  to  the  funda- 
mentals of  the  work  itself,  and  studies  these  in  relation  to  the 
fatigue.  What  has  been  done  is  worth  while  when  we  know  how 
it  has  been  done,  and  why  it  has  been  done.  Given  these  facts, 
we  can  determine  how  it  may  be  done  again  in  the  same  fashion 
and  possibly  even  better.  The  practice  that  is  the  result  of  accurate 
measurement — that  is  the  standard  to  be  demanded.1 

Gilbreth  has  applied  practically  all  his  ideas  and  methods. 
First,  then,  a  fatigue  survey  had  to  be  made,  in  order — 

(i)  To  present  an  accurate  picture  of  existing  conditions  from 
the  fatigue  standpoint. 


1  Gilbreth,  op.  cit.,  p.  3. 


56      PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

(2)  To  enable  all  interested  in  fatigue  elimination  to  visualize 

the  problem  thoroughly. 

(3)  To  divide  the  problem  of  fatigue  elimination  into  such  work- 

ing units  that  it  may  be  possible  to  attack  the  problem 
successfully  from  the  start. 

(4)  To  arouse  the  interest  of  every  member  of  the  organization 

in  fatigue  and  its  elimination. 

(5)  To  show  the  relation  between  fatigue  and  activity. 

(6)  To   teach   every   member   of   the   organization   to   conserve 

his  working  powers. 

Gilbreth  begins  his  investigations  with  attention  to 
the  external  conditions  of  work.  Thus  the  lighting  should 
be  well  distributed,  he  says,  and  strike  the  work  and  the 
worker  at  the  least  fatiguing  angle.  Moreover,  every 
possible  means  should  be  taken  to  remove  all  glare  and 
reflection  which  fatigues  the  eyes,  so  that  ornament  and 
bright  polish  must  be  sacrificed  to  efficiency,  and,  in  spite 
of  prejudice,  a  coat  of  dull  black  paint  given  all  shining 
metal  parts.  (Gilbreth  seems  here  to  overlook  the  fact 
that  bright  surfaces  are  aesthetically  pleasing,  whereas  dull 
black  depresses  the  spirit,  even  if  it  is  devoid  of  the  power 
to  fatigue  the  eyes.}  The  knowledge  that  there  is  ade- 
quate fire-protection  also  has  a  considerable  effect  upon 
the  mental  comfort  of  the  workers,  since  subconscious 
anxieties  will  hinder  the  workers,  and  bring  on  fatigue 
earlier  than  is  usual. 

Equally  important  as  a  preliminary  step  in  fatigue 
elimination  is  the  work  of  improving  work-places  and 
work-tables,  of  providing  and  improving  chairs,  and 
arranging  materials  and  tools  so  that  they  are  always 
ready  to  hand.  Gilbreth  believes  strongly  in  orderly 
methods  of  work. 

The  girl  selling  ribbons  who  walks  up  and  down  behind  the 
counter  through  an  accumulation  of  paper,  cardboard  cores,  and 
other  odds  and  ends,  has  not  only  the  bodily  fatigue  of  pushing 
the  clutter  ahead  or  kicking  it  aside,  but  also  the  mental  fatigue 
that  comes  from  adjusting  herself  constantly  to  such  conditions. 

Orderliness  is  not  imposed,  however,  but  every  endeavour 
made  in  the  Gilbreth  type  of  factory  or  store  to  interest 


THE   ELIMINATION   OF  FATIGUE  57 

the  worker  in  economizing  energy  and  thought.  It  is 
this  sort  of  attempt  on  the  part  of  Gilbreth  to  educate 
his  workers  to  the  possibilities  of  personal  economy  of 
effort  which  makes  all  he  does  so  fascinating. 

New  types  of  work-tables  and  chairs  have  been  con- 
structed by  Gilbreth  to  suit  the  needs  of  the  worker,  and 
we  have  an  entirely  new  principle  here  involved  :  it  is 
that  not  only  the  worker  must  adapt  and  fit  himself 
to  his  work — an  understood  condition  of  all  factory 
efficiency  till  to-day,  but  his  work  and  his  tools  must  be 
made  to  fit  him.  There  has,  of  course,  been  for  ages 
an  unconscious  selection  of  tools  which  suit  the  worker, 
and  those  we  have  to-day  possess  survival  qualities  which 
are  apt  to  be  overlooked  by  toolmakers  who  place  novelty 
of  design  before  utility.  Thus  wood  handles  for  hammers 
give  not  only  the  balance  required  for  easy  use,  but  also 
friction  enough  to  make  handling  firm ;  boot-brushes 
and  clothes-brushes  have  grooves  along  the  wooden 
base  which  take  the  fingers  and  allow  for  a  secure  grip  ; 
razors  have  frequently  a  milled  section  on  the  back  edge 
just  where  they  are  held  by  the  fingers  ;  fountain  pens 
are  best  adapted  for  use  when  they  are  not  too  smooth  ; 
and  so  on.  It  has  been  experimentally  demonstrated 
that  in  shovelling  there  is  one  size  of  shovel  only  which 
allows  the  maximum  work  to  be  done. 

Gilbreth  advocates — what  may  seem  fanciful — measur- 
ing the  worker  for  his  tools  and  chairs,  and  adjusting 
the  heights  of  tables  and  seats  so  that  stretching  and 
stooping  are  reduced  to  a  minimum.  His  general  method 
is  as  follows  : — 

If  your  problem  is  to  enable  seated  work  to  be  done  standing, 
raise  your  work  to  the  standing  level,  and  put  your  work-chair 
on  stilts  with  casters,  provided  the  work  is  not  of  the  kind  that 
requires  a  chair  against  which  one  can  push.  If  your  problem 
is  to  enable  work  that  has  been  done  standing  to  be  done  sitting, 
construct  a  chair  that  will  bring  the  worker  to  the  desired  height. 
If  your  problem  is  to  reduce  vibration,  put  springs  under  the  four 
legs  of  your  chair.  If  your  problem  is  to  make  sitting  work  more 
comfortable,  be  sure  that  the  chair  is  of  the  proper  height ;  that 


58      PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

the  seat  sjopes  right  and  has  a  rounded  front  edge  ;  and  that  if 
it  has  a  back  it  is  one  that  does  not  interfere  with  work.  If  the 
chair  is  too  high,  saw  off  the  legs  ;  if  too  low,  add  wooden  blocks. 

Gilbreth  has  even  established  a  public  museum  in  Pro- 
vidence, U.S.A.,  containing  such  anti-fatigue  devices  as 
we  have  mentioned.  But  Gilbreth  realizes  that  all  these 
devices  are  mechanical  devices  and  do  not  touch  the 
real  springs  of  energy  which  must  be  moved  before  genuine 
pleasurable  work  will  be  generated  among  the  workers. 
Moreover,  Miss  Josephine  Goldmark  has  pointed  out l 
the  obvious  fact  that  the  reformer  who  aims  at  a 
thoroughgoing  industrial  hygiene  must  needs  see  not  only 
that  the  work-places  but  also  that  the  homes  of  the  workers 
are  such  as  will  give  the  best  conditions  for  rest  and 
recuperation  of  body,  mind,  and  spirit.  Hygiene  in  the 
factory  will  be  best  supported  by  hygiene  in  the  home  ; 
one  without  the  other  will  be  ineffective. 

But  the  most  important  form  of  fatigue  to  be  attacked 
is  the  fatigue  of  the  higher  mental  life.  It  is  as  much 
an  essential  part  of  the  work  of  the  management  to  arouse 
interest  and  keep  it  alive,  as  it  is  the  work  of  a  general 
to  keep  his  troops  nerved  to  fine  issues.  The  cultivation 
of  morale  is  as  important  in  the  factory  as  on  the 
battlefield.  Gilbreth  realizes  this  and  claims  that  demon- 
strations in  the  concrete  form  of  the  results  of  his 
motion  study  generate  an  interest  among  the  workers 
themselves  in  the  problem  of  eliminating  wasted  effort. 
They  will  already  possess  a  knowledge  of  the  results  of 
motion  study,  and  this  renders  them  able  to  take  the 
initiative  in  acquiring  skill  in  the  activities  of  both  work 
and  leisure.  They  adopt  a  new  attitude  towards  work, 
and  think  habitually  in  terms  of  motions,  inventing  for 
themselves  more  economical  modes  of  procedure. 

Gilbreth  attempted  further  to  stimulate  his  workers  by 

the  establishment  of  what  he  calls  the  "  Home  Reading 

Box  Movement."     This  is    a  system  of  placing  reading 

matter  at   the   disposal  of  workers.     Books,   magazines, 

1  Fatigue  and  Efficiency. 


THE   ELIMINATION   OF   FATIGUE  59 

trade  catalogues,  pamphlets  and  newspapers  are  placed 
in  a  box  near  the  exit  from  the  works.  The  employees 
are  invited  to  help  themselves,  and  in  turn  help  to  keep 
the  box  filled.  The  system  has  resulted,  according  to 
Gilbreth,  in  the  education  of  the  workers  to  the  possibility 
of  improving  methods  of  work,  and  made  the  rest-pauses 
which  were  provided  real  rests,  because  it  provided  an 
adequate  means  of  distracting  the  mind  from  the  labour 
just  dropped.  But  here  we  have  a  confession  that 
fatigue  can  only  be  eliminated  by  proper  attention  to  the 
workers'  welfare. 

In  this  country  there  is  a  rapidly  growing  tendency 
to  take  action  against  the  influences  which  are  responsible 
for  industrial  fatigue,  through  the  introduction  of  welfare 
supervisors,1  who  work  sometimes  in  co-operation  with, 
but  sometimes  independently  of,  the  Works  Committees 
in  the  factories.  There  are  now  installed  in  a  large  number 
of  British  factories  such  supervisors  whose  duty  is  to 
see  that  workrooms  are  adequately  ventilated,  kept  at 
suitable  temperatures,  and  lighted  to  the  best  advantage, 
that  cleanliness  is  assured  among  the  workers  by  the 
provision  of  sanitary  and  washing  arrangements,  that 
good  and  well-cooked  meals  served  up  in  congenial  sur- 
roundings are  available  for  those  who  need  them,  that 
recreational  and  rest-rooms  facilities  are  provided  during 
the  mid-day  pause,  and  if  possible  at  other  times,  that 
records  of  various  sorts  are  kept  relating  to  accidents  and 
sickness,  and  that  all  which  can  be  done  to  make  factory 
life  endurable  is  being  done.  As  an  indication  of  the 
value  of  systematic  attention  to  the  hundred-and-one 
small  points  which  affect  the  worker's  well-being  the 
fact  may  be  instanced  that  in  nearly  all  West  End  shops 
living  conditions  are  in  charge  of  the  forewoman,  who  is 

1  Particulars  of  the  Welfare  movement  can  be  obtained  from 
the  Industrial  Welfare  Society  or  the  Welfare  Workers'  Institute, 
London. 

"  Welfare  work  consists  of  voluntary  efforts  on  the  part  of  employers 
to  improve  within  the  industrial  system  the  conditions  of  employment 
in  their  own  factories  "  (Proud,  Welfare  Work}. 


60      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

an  autocrat  in  her  own  department,  and  brooks  no  inter- 
ference. The  state  of  the  rooms,  therefore,  varies  accord- 
ing to  her  temperament,  being  clean  if  she  has  theories 
on  the  subject  of  cleanliness,  but  not  otherwise  ;  warm 
if  she  likes  heat,  and  so  on. 

The  demand  for  welfare  work  should  come  from 
below  ;  it  should  not  be  imposed  from  above  if  it  is  to 
be  effective.  If  the  "  Works  Committee  "  in  any  factory 
introduces  it  and  supervises  it  there  will  be  less  likeli- 
hood that  the  workers  will  hold  aloof  in  the  belief  that  the 
employer  has  only  introduced  it  because  it  pays  him. 

The  readiness  with  which  bad  motives  are  attributed  to 
management  should  suggest  always  the  advisability  of 
neglecting  no  possible  way  of  securing  the  workers'  co- 
operation. 


§  2.  THE  TECHNIQUE  OF  MOTION  STUDY 

The  feature  of  Gilbreth's  work  which  has  attracted 
most  attention  and  provided  the  spectacular  argument 
for  scientific  management  is  the  actual  technique  which 
he  employed  in  the  analysis  of  the  movements  of  the 
worker's  body  or  tools  during  the  performances  of  a 
task.  When  we  speak  of  Motion  Study  or  Micro-Motion 
Study  we  usually  refer  specifically  to  this  method  and 
technique. 

In  his  desire  .to  introduce  measurement  into  the  study 
of  the  problems  of  fatigue,  Gilbreth  conceived  the  idea 
of  attaching  a  small  electric  lamp  to  the  moving  body 
or  tool  at  work,  so  that  by  photographing  such  a  move~ 
ment  with  a  camera,  he  was  able  to  obtain  a  continuous 
white  tracing  of  the  path  of  the  movement  as  it  would 
appear  to  an  onlooker.  Such  a  representation  is  called  a 
cyclegraph.  Fastened  to  the  wheel-rim  of  an  engine  such  a 
light  would  be  seen  from  the  front  as  a  white  line  in 
such  a  photograph,  while  a  light  fastened  to  the  hand 
of  a  woman  who  is  sewing  would  trace  out  a  path  roughly 
elliptical. 

Before  measurement  could  satisfactorily  be  applied  to 
a  movement,  however,  it  was  necessary  to  reproduce  the 
time  occupied  in  the  movement,  and  for  this  purpose 
an  interrupter  of  known  frequency  was  introduced  into 
the  lamp  circuit,  with  the  result  that  a  chronocyclegraph 
was  produced,  showing  instead  of  a  continuous  white 
tracing  a  series  of  dashes,  bunched  together  where  the 
movement  had  been  slowest,  and  spread  at  greater 
intervals  elsewhere,  and  recording,  moreover,  by  the 

61 


62      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

number  of  the  dashes  an  indication  of  the  time  occupied 
in  the  operation. 

By  employing  a  stereoscopic  camera,  Gilbreth  was  able 
to  see  the  photographed  movement  in  three  dimensions. 
This  further  refinement  in  representation  gives  us  the 
stereo chronocyclegraph.  By  the  utilization  of  the  cinema- 
tographic camera  in  addition  to  the  former  devices  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  a  series  of  photographs  of  successive 
stages  of  a  movement,  we  are  able  afterwards  to  reproduce 
on  a  screen  the  movement  which  we  wish  to  study.1 

It  still  remained,  however,  for  a  method  to  be  discovered 
by  which  Gilbreth  could  represent  the  direction  of  the 
movement  under  observation.  This  was  effected  by 
arranging  the  voltage  and  the  amperage  of  the  lamp 
current  in  such  a  way  that  quick  incandescence  was  com- 
bined with  slow  disappearance,  so  that  the  flashes  of  light 
appeared  in  the  photograph  as  arrow-headed  in  shape, 
broad,  that  is,  at  their  origin  and  pointed  where  the  light 
ceased,  thus  indicating  by  their  appearance  the  forward 
path  of  the  movement. 

Two  further  improvements  introduced  completed  the 
record  for  measurement  purposes.  The  actual  length 
of  the  movements  needed  to  be  shown,  and  this  was 
made  possible  by  the  use  of  a  "  penetrating  "  screen  in 
the  photograph.  The  same  plates  on  which  the  final 
photographs  appeared  were  given  a  preliminary  short 
exposure,  during  which  a  black  screen  with  white  squares 
of  standard  size  was  set  up  in  the  field  where  the  move- 
ments were  to  be  photographed.  This  screen  appeared 
in  the  finished  picture,  and  so  the  movements  could  be 
measured  by  reference  to  the  squares.  Usually,  to  ensure 

1  To-day  the  ultra-rapid  camera  promises  to  be  of  great  use 
in  this  connection,  by  taking  a  large  number  of  photographs  per 
second,  say  one  hundred,  for  later  reproduction  at  the  rate  of 
about  fifteen  per  second  (a  rate  which  gives  the  illusion  of  continuous 
movement) .  In  this  way  we  can  see  actions  performed  at  a  very 
slow  rate.  Thus  an  action  which  usually  lasts  fifteen  seconds  can 
be  slowed  down  in  representation  so  that  it  occupies  one  hundred 
seconds. 


THE  ELIMINATION   OF  FATIGUE  63 

greater  accuracy,  photographs  were  taken  from  more 
than  one  angle. 

The  more  efficient  a  series  of  movements  is,  from  the 
Gilbreth  point  of  view,  the  more  their  paths  will  approxi- 
mate when  photographed  to  that  of  a  single  line  ;  ineffi- 
ciency is  shown  by  blurs  and  tangles  and  uncertainties. 

Finally,  in  the  cinematographic  work  the  introduction 
into  the  field  of  a  micro  chronometer  showing  time  correct 
to  the  thousandth  part  of  a  minute  made  the  device 
complete  and  thoroughly  scientific. 

From  the  stereochronocyclegraph  a  wire  model  can 
be  made  of  such  movements  as  have  been  chosen  for 
study  or  for  patterns  of  efficiency. 

Motion  models  are  made  by  looking  at  the  path  as  shown  in  the 
stereoscope,  and  bending  the  wire  to  conform  to  this  path.  The 
wire  model,  when  completed,  is  placed  in  a  black  box  cross-sectioned 
in  white,  the  cross-sectioning  being  placed  at  the  same  relative 
places  as  are  the  cross-sectioned  screens  in  the  original  picture.1 

To  the  worker  himself  such  a  permanent  record  is  an 
eloquent  evidence  of  the  quality  of  his  skill  or  lack  of  skill, 
grace  or  awkwardness,  decision  or  lack  of  decision. 

Many  interesting  facts  came  to  light  when  Gilbreth 
made  a  study  of  his  motion-models.  He  discovered  that 
workers  not  only  do  not  all  use  the  same  motions,  but 
that  individually  they  do  not  use  the  same  methods  or 
trace  the  same  paths  in  space  in  working  slowly  as  they 
do  in  working  quickly.  This  is  because  centrifugal 
force,  physical  momentum  and  other  factors  play  a  greater 
part  in  the  latter  process  than  they  do  in  the  former. 
Even  the  expert  teacher,  in  teaching  skilled  movements, 
e.g.  those  of  dancing,  typewriting,  rowing,  violin-playing, ' 
etc.,  does  not  teach  the  movements  which  he  himself 
uses  when  unconscious  of  his  art,  as  he  will  be  at  his  best. 
Gilbreth  considers,  therefore,  that  it  is  wrong  to  aim 
primarily  at  performing  the  movements  to  be  learnt 
slowly  but  with  accuracy,  and  then  trust  to  subsequent 

1  Applied  Motion  Study,  p.  89. 


64      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

practice  for  the  development  of  speed.  He  believes 
strongly  in  the  apprentice  or  the  novice  plunging  into 
the  full  current  of  activity,  and  acquiring  the  standard 
speed  at  once.  This  is  an  economy,  since  the  wrong  habits 
of  slow  movement  have  not  to  be  unlearnt  :  quality  will 
come  by  the  gradual  elimination  of  unnecessary  movements 
due  to  faulty  adaptation.  In  fact,  Giibreth's  argument 
is  that  since  those  motions  with  their  corresponding 
speeds  are  taken  as  standards  which  produce  the  best 
quality  of  work,  then  by  using  from  the  outset  the  stan- 
dard motions  at  the  standard  speed  we  must  invariably  and 
inevitably  ensure  the  production  of  the  standard  quality.1 

Giibreth's  discovery  here  is  in  harmony  with  much 
of  our  modern  experience  in  other  educational  fields. 
He  has  illustrated  in  an  unexpected  and  striking  manner 
the  general  truth  that  when  we  learn  naturally,  whether 
it  is  to  dance,  or  to  speak  a  new  language,  or  to  skate,  or 
adopt  new  habits,  it  is  by  an  inner  sympathy  with,  and 
intuitive  grasp  of  the  meaning  of  the  whole  process  before 
us,  which  we  imitate  first  as  a  whole.  Only  gradually 
we  learn  to  split  it  up  consciously  into  "  parts,"  and 
generally  after  we  have  made  considerable  progress.  To 
teach  a  knowledge  of  the  parts  first,  by  fixing  consciousness 
separately  and  rigidly  upon  them,  and  to  hope  that  the 
whole  may  eventually  be  built  up  out  of  the  parts,  is  to 
confess  complete  disbelief  in  natural  methods  of  learning. 
Further  investigation  into  this  matter,  however,  is  needed. 

We  do  not  think,  however,  that  Gilbreth  has  suffi- 
ciently proved  the  fact  that  there  is  only  one  ideal  method 
of  making  the  movements  involved  in  the  performance 
of  a  task,  and  this  seems  to  follow  from  his  emphasis  of 
a  standard  speed  and  a  standard  motion  for  all  workers 
engaged  in  the  same  task.  It  would  seem  that  unless 
the  physical  and  mental  structure  of  individuals  were 
exactly  the  same  in  all  respects  that  each  standard  must 
be  relative,  and  therefore  subject  to  deviations  and  modi- 

J  This,  of  course,  is  not  always  possible,  e.g.  in  working  with 
delicate  glass  and  other  expensive  materials. 


THE   ELIMINATION   OF  FATIGUE  65 

fications  to  suit  the  peculiarities  of  the  worker  who  uses 
them.  If  Gilbreth  insists  on  a  single  mechanical  standard, 
then  surely  he  will  re-establish  in  another  form  the  very 
thing  he  has  been  so  indefatigable  in  preventing,  the 
subordination  of  the  human  to  the  mechanical.  Man 
must  become  the  master  of  mechanism  :  in  that  way  only 
can  life  develop. 

Hoxie *  quotes  an  interesting  example  of  the  breakdown 
of  the  method  when  applied  to  the  work  of  some  seam- 
stresses. Experiments  were  conducted  with  different 
lengths  of  cut  thread  to  find  the  optimum  thread  length  ; 
experiments  were  conducted  with  girls  of  varying  arm- 
length  to  find  an  optimum  arm-length ;  experiments 
were  conducted  with  different  types  of  motion  for  the 
actions  of  the  fingers  and  arm  in  sewing.  All  the  experi- 
ments proved  ineffective.  In  this  case  apparently  each 
individual  had  naturally  adopted  a  method  which  could 
not  be  improved  upon  :  there  was  no  standard  method  or 
means  which  could  be  profitably  adopted  universally. 
So  two  men  may  be  set  to  make  bushes,  and  they  may 
use  the  same  callipers  as  set  by  an  expert  workman.  The 
bush  in  one  case  will  fit  perfectly  the  boss  of  the  wheel 
for  which  it  is  made  ;  in  the  other  case  the  boss  will  be 
split.  The  difference  is  wholly  due  to  the  different 
delicacy  in  the  sensitiveness  of  the  fingers  using  the 
callipers,  and  this  sensitiveness  cannot  be  standardized. 

It  has  been  said  that  motion-study  is  no  affair  of  the 
psychologist.  But  to  teach  motion-study  without  any 
attempt  to  discover  how  the  thing  feels  to  the  worker 
"  from  the  inside  "  is  to  court  failure.  In  this  country, 
at  any  rate,  the  best  policy  for  some  time  will  be  to  teach 
the  principles  of  the  subject  and  leave  it  to  the  worker, 
while  encouraging  but  not  inciting  him  unwisely,  to  apply 
them  in  his  own  way. 

REFERENCES 

GILBRETH,  F.  B. :  Bricklaying  System  ;  Fatigue  Study  ;  Motion 

Study. 

GILBRETH,  F.  B.,  and  Mrs.  L.  M.  :    Applied  Motion  Study. 
1  Scientific  Management  and  Labour, 
5 


66      PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 


EXAMPLE  OF  MOTION  STUDY  PHOTOGRAPHS  TAKEN  IN  THE 
DEPARTMENT  OF  INDUSTRIAL  ADMINISTRATION,  COLLEGE  or 
TECHNOLOGY,  MANCHESTER. 

(Reproduced  by  permission  of  Dr.  A.  F.  Stanley  Kent.) 

A  photograph  illustrating — 

1.  The    method   of   timing   the    motion    by   interrupting   the 

circuit  at  known  rates. 

2.  The  pointers  which  give  the  direction  in  which  the  motion 

takes  place. 

3.  A  method  of   differentiating  between  two   or  more  motion 

paths. 

Three  paths  are  shown — 

(a)  A  path  interrupted  twenty-five  times  per  second. 

(b)  A  path  interrupted  ten  times  per  second. 

(c)  A  path  interrupted  five  times  per  second. 

4.  How  the  examinee  may  be  introduced  (if  this  is  required). 


To  face  p.  66. 


CHAPTER   IV 

VOCATIONAL    SELECTION 

§  i.   THE  NEED  FOR  SYSTEMATIZED  SELECTION 

ANOTHER  cause  of  industrial  inefficiency  now  faces  us. 
There  is  a  consensus  of  opinion  among  those  who  have 
had  some  experience  of  the  working  of  our  industrial 
system  that  the  methods  utilized  in  filling  up  vacancies 
which  occur  from  time  to  time  in  both  the  ranks  and  in 
the  high  offices  of  the  great  army  of  employed  persons  are 
far  from  satisfactory.  Employers  interested  in  the  perfec- 
tion of  manufacturing  methods  lived  for  a  while  through 
a  period  of  great  hopefulness  when  the  first  attempts 
were  being  so  successfully  undertaken  to  standardize 
machinery  and  processes  and  determine  the  best  possible 
working  conditions  which  could  be  established  in  the 
factory  and  the  workshop,  but  we  realize  now  that  unless, 
in  addition,  we  can  learn  to  deal  economically  with  the 
placement  of  the  human  element  in  industry  and  employ 
the  individual  workers  in  occupations  where  they  can 
use  their  particular  abilities  most  effectively,  we  shall 
still  find  a  state  of  things  existing  comparable  to  that 
which  we  have  when  we  are  running  our  machinery  with 
insufficient  oil,  or  when  we  put  our  best  workmen  to 
work  in  places  where  they  are  being  continually  disturbed 
by  noise  and  movement. 

In  addition  to  the  lack  of  systematized  knowledge  there 
have  been  two  factors  which  have  contributed  to  our  slow 
approach  towards  efficiency  in  dealing  with  the  human 
element  in  industry.  In  the  first  place  it  is  unfortunately 


68      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

true  that  few  adolescents  know  either  the  extent  of  their 
own  powers  or  the  range  of  possibilities  open  to  them  in 
the  labour  market.  Impelled  by  the  insurgent  emotions 
of  newly-awakened  youth,  by  the  desire  to  earn  their 
own  living,  and  to  take  a  worthy  share  in  the  activities 
and  responsibilities  of  adult  life,  the  boys  and  girls  of 
our  time  pour  themselves  eagerly  into  the  world  of  industry 
through  every  opening  which  offers  itself.  Employers 
have  now  grown  accustomed  to  this  indiscriminating 
stream  of  adolescence  coming  in  full  flood  upon  them,  but 
they  have  never  been  able  to  cope  with  it  effectively. 
The  most  they  have  been  able  to  do  is  to  provide  temporary 
channels  of  passage.  In  addition,  too,  to  the  hot  flood 
of  youth  ready  to  run  itself  out  into  any  and  every  mould 
which  is  available,  there  has  also  been,  since  the  Industrial 
Revolution  set  in,  a  permanent  surplus  in  the  adult  labour 
market.  For  these  two  reasons  it  has,  therefore,  been 
possible  for  management  to  dispense  with  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  what  constitutes  psychological  fitness  for 
any  given  task,  and  to  exercise  a  certain  rough-and-ready 
choice  among  those  seeking  employment,  for  when  this 
choice  has  proved  to  be  bad,  it  has  always  been  possible 
to  replace  the  least  capable  workers  by  those^who  were 
likely  to  shape  better. 

What  has  been  the  customary  method  of  selecting 
workers  in  so  far  as  there  has  been  any  method  at  all  ? 
Management  has  had  to  follow  one  of  two  courses  :  either 
trust  to  individual  records  of  fitness,  such  as  testimonials 
and  other  paper  qualifications,  which  are  notoriously  un- 
reliable, and  to  the  impressions  of  the  personal  interview  ; 
or  to  "  hire  and  fire/'  as  the  Americans  say,  that  is, 
engage  more  workers  than  are  actually  required  with  the 
idea  of  weeding  out  at  the  end  of  a  short  probationary 
period  those  who  have  shown  themselves  most  inefficient. 
This  practice  involves  a  large  turnover,  and  a  large  labour 
turnover  is  to-day  rightly  considered  to  be  the  index  of 
bad  management.  For  this  reason,  and  because  even 
in  these  circumstances  there  still  remains  evidence,  of 


VOCATIONAL  SELECTION  69 

faulty  adaptation  on  every  hand,  the  necessity  of  economy 
has  been  forced  upon  the  consideration  of  all  those  who 
are  responsible  for  the  control  of  industry. 

The  search  for  the  general  principles  which  should  enable 
men  to  find  their  natural  occupations  or  vocations  with 
the  least  discomfort  has  been  a  long  one,  and  it  is  only 
to-day  that  we  are  even  within  sight  of  a  scientific  mode 
of  procedure.  In  the  pre-scientific  period,  however,  one 
might  have  consulted  the  astrologist,  the  phrenologist, 
the  physiognomist,  and  others  who  claimed  to  base  their 
forecasts  of  vocational  ability  upon  general  principles. 
But  these  pseudo-scientists  have  developed  "  hit-or-miss  " 
methods  which  have  not  been  productive  of  much  real 
success.  If  we  believe  that,  for  example,  the  quality 
of  our  intelligence  and  character  is  determined  not  only 
by  factors  for  which  our  heredity  is  responsible,  but  also 
by  the  physical  and  social  environment  in  which  we  are 
reared — and  this  is  the  generally  accepted  belief — then 
it  must  seem  to  be  mere  folly  to  foretell  aptitudes  and 
powers  solely  from  data  supplied  by  the  position  of  the 
stars  at  one's  birth,  or  from  the  contours  of  one's  skull, 
or  the  natively  determined  size  and  shape  of  one's  hand. 
It  may  be,  of  course,  that  occasionally,  as  the  astrologist 
affirms,  those  born  in  February  will  have  good  taste,  be 
quick  at  absorbing  information,  show  marked  intuition, 
be  intolerant  and  subject  to  rheumatism,  and  so  on;  but 
no  one  will  have  confidence  in  any  method  which  pretends 
to  scientific  accuracy  if  it  follows  this  rigid  Calvinistic 
line  of  reasoning  as  an  infallible  guide.  Similarly  it  is 
impossible  to  diagnose  capacity  of  brain  from  quantity 
or  the  externally  apparent  disposition  of  substance. 
The  same  quantity  may  be  poorly  or  highly  convoluted, 
and  this  difference  may  have  great  significance,  just  as 
the  difference  in  the  surface  area  of  the  pole-plates  of 
two  accumulators  may  be  responsible  for  a  difference  in 
their  capacities,  although  in  both  cases  the  quantity  of 
metal  in  the  pole-plates  themselves  may  be  the  same. 

The  physiognomist,  too,  has  met  with  a  fair  amount  of 


70      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

success  in  diagnosing  character.  It  is  impossible  to  resist 
the  temptation  to  read  something  of  the  character  of 
people  in  the  shifting  eye,  the  massive  jaw,  the  receding 
chin,  the  curved  shoulder,  the  vacant  stare,  the  thin  or 
loose  lips,  and  other  such  features.  When  there  is  in 
addition  a  play  of  emotion  over  the  face,  then  the  experi- 
enced student  of  human  nature  usually  gets  a  good  clue 
to  the  inner  quality  of  the  individual  under  notice. 

There  would,  then,  seem  to  be  enough  evidence  to 
warrant  us  in  saying  that  the  success  of  all  such  methods 
as  we  have  just  indicated  must  be  due  either  to  chance  or 
to  the  skill  of  the  man  employing  them  (which,  of  course, 
may  be  considerable)  and  not  to  the  methods  themselves. 

Now,  an  interviewer  proceeding  by  pure  chance  should 
be  able  to  score  on  an  average  fifty  right  decisions  out 
of  a  hundred  as  to  whether  individuals  are  fitted  for  a 
particular  occupation  or  not,  while  his  knowledge  of 
human  nature  gained  through  experience  should  be  such 
as  to  enable  him  to  add  another  fifteen  per  cent,  to 
this  score.  Indications  exist,  however,  that  still  greater 
success  may  be  obtained  if  the  trained  observer  calls  to 
his  aid  the  psychological  test  to  supplement  his  insight. 
We  must  now  enquire  into  this  possibility. 


§  2.  THE    EVOLUTION    OF   OCCUPATIONAL 
APTITUDES 

It  is  the  tendency  in  modern  industry  towards  the 
continuously  increasing  division  of  the  processes  of 
labour  in  the  mechanical  world,  and  the  consequent  ever- 
narrowing  specialization  of  function  in  the  human  sphere, 
which  has  brought  into  the  sharpest  focus,  so  that  it 
flashes  upon  the  attention  of  every  observing  thinker, 
the  problem  of  finding  the  fittest  workers  for  each  parti- 
cular task  in  the  myriad-sided  work  of  production  and 
exchange.  This  two-fold  tendency  has  developed  so 
rapidly  within  the  past  century  that  human  nature  has 
lost  something  of  the  old  equilibrium  of  its  adaptation 
to  the  conditions  of  civilized  life.  Before  the  modern  age 
of  machinery  came  in,  men  and  women  had,  by  a  process 
either  of  mental  gravitation  or  by  deliberate  selection, 
found  themselves  in  the  occupations  and  vocations  best 
suited  to  their  intelligence  and  temperament ;  and  side 
by  side  with  the  gradual  perfection  of  this  adaptation  on 
the  part  of  human  nature,  through  individual  and  racial 
experience,  to  the  traditional  occupations,  there  went 
on  a  steady  sifting-out  of  the  temperaments  which  were 
markedly  unfitted  to  carry  on  the  industrial  traditions  of 
the  family  or  neighbourhood,  a  process  evidenced  in  such 
behaviour  as  running  off  to  sea  or  to  the  Colonies.  The 
irrepressible  individualism  of  the  Australian,  as  shown, 
for  example,  on  many  occasions  in  the  recent  war,  is  but 
one  of  the  many  products  of  this  sifting-out  process.  It 
may  become  necessary  in  this  connection  to  differentiate 
between  misfits  and  unfits.  The  tramp  is  more  frequently 

71 


72      PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

an  unfit  (i.e.  defective  in  intelligence)  than  a  misfit.  The 
misfit  is  a  person  who  finds  himself,  like  W.  S.  Gilbert's 
billiard  player,  condemned  to  play — 

On  a  cloth  untrue,  with  a  twisted  cue,  and  elliptical  billiard  balls. 

In  many  ways  those  who  have  become  adapted  to  their 
occupations  show  physical  and  mental  qualities  char- 
acteristic of  their  type.  As  examples  of  the  former  we 
may  point  to  the  large  hands  of  the  members  of  farming 
families  and  the  deft  fingers  of  those  of  weaving  families, 
and  as  examples  of  well-adapted  mental  dispositions  we 
have  the  peaceful  shepherd  type,  admirably  suited  to  a 
life  of  infrequently  interrupted  calm,  and  the  hunting 
type,  explosive  and  irritable,  impatient  of  long  control 
and  fond  of  that  change  of  environment  to  which  the 
movements  of  the  animals  of  its  prey  had  accustomed 
its  ancestors. 

In  their  pure  form  these  two  latter  types  no  longer 
exist.  It  is  a  speculation  of  Mr.  Edward  Carpenter  that 
progress  has  largely  resulted  from  the  appearance  and 
efforts  of  men  who  have  possessed  other  "  intermediate  " 
types  of  disposition  which  are  unsuited  to  those  occupations 
already  traditional  and  common.  Thus  new  dispositions 
are  perhaps  blends  of  more  primitive  ones.  If  this  should 
prove  a  well-founded  speculation,  then  it  may  yet  be 
possible  to  construct  a  branch  of  the  science  of  industrial 
psychology  which  will  enable  us  to  account  for  the  com- 
parative popularity  of  each  trade  or  calling  in  accordance 
with  the  strength  of  its  appeal  to  the  primitive  occu- 
pational dispositions  and  their  derivatives.  We  get  new 
tastes,  smells,  sounds  and  colours  by  fusion  ;  why  not 
new  mental  types  ?  This  is  no  more  fanciful  than  to 
attempt  to  account  for  the  more  subtle  emotions  of  men 
by  reference  to  those  primary  emotions  which  we  have 
in  common  with  the  higher  animals  ;  indeed,  it  may  be 
said  that  it  is  but  another  aspect  of  the  same  enterprise. 
Hunting  and  shepherding  are  but  expressions  of  what 


VOCATIONAL  SELECTION  73 

Dr.  McDougall  would  perhaps  agree  to  call  the  instinct  of 
pugnacity  and  of  the  tender  or  protective  instinct. 

The  subject  of  vocational  psychology  has  not  yet  been 
approached  from  this  point  of  view,  but  it  is  obvious  that 
in  many  occupations  an  instinctive  emotional  adaptation 
is  an  all-important  necessity. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  continue  our  speculation  and  try 
to  imagine  what  may  happen  to  the  shepherd — in  whom 
the  primary  emotions  seem  to  function  principally  under 
the  control  of  the  protective  instinct — as  it  becomes 
imperative  for  him  to  adapt  himself  to  the  changing 
conditions  of  life  in  a  progressive  community.  As  his 
intelligence  increases  and  as  society  becomes  more  com- 
plex, his  native  disposition  remains  fundamentally  un- 
changed ;  it  is  still  his  tendency  to  brood  in  tender 
solicitude  over  life  in  its  manifold  forms,  so  that  every 
new  occupation  which  he  takes  up  will  be  but  a  variation 
of  the  original  primitive  occupation.  He  will  become, 
according  to  his  new  environment,  which  will  make  appeals 
of  varying  strength  to  other  instincts,  the  gardener,  the 
breeder,  or  the  doctor,  the  nurse,  the  teacher,  the  priest 
(shepherd  of  souls),  the  welfare  worker  or  the  states- 
man. When  his  life-powers  ebb  and  his  intelligence  fails 
he  will  still  be  possessed  of  the  impulse  to  look  after  some- 
thing needing  attention,  but  he  will  be  content,  when 
he  cannot  care  for  animate  creatures,  to  tend  inanimate 
things,  so  that  he  may  appear  in  a  later  civilization  as 
the  night-watchman,  the  railway-porter,  the  scavenger,  or 
the  machine-feeder. 

The  genealogical  tree  of  the  primitive  hunter  (who  is 
a  fisher  when  his  environment  is  water  instead  of  land) 
branches  out  on  the  enterprising  side  into  the  occupations 
of  explorer,  pirate  and  military  chief,  and  on  another  side 
into  those  of  the  cock-fighter,  rat-catcher,  bull-fighter,  and 
pugilist.  By  a  process,  let  us  say,  of  cross  fertilization 
between  the  shepherd  type  we  have  the  intermediate  types 
of  the  missionary,  the  magistrate  and  the  country  squire. 

It  is  generally  agreed  that  there  are  several  other  well- 


74      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

marked  primary  tendencies,  and  they,  too,  will,  when  they 
are  so  well  emphasized  that  they  are  the  nuclei  around 
which  the  remaining  tendencies  group  themselves,  show 
themselves  in  characteristic  occupations.  The  marked 
development  of  the  constructive  instinct  largely  deter- 
mines, according  as  it  is  expressed  in  the  mechanical, 
organic,  or  human  environments,  the  genius  of  the  en- 
gineer and  the  carpenter,  of  the  breeder  and  the  gardener, 
and  of  the  organizer,  the  statesman,  the  poet  and  the 
artist.  The  instinct  of  self -display  is  a  strong  original 
factor  in  motiving  the  conduct  of  the  actor,  the  auctioneer, 
the  politician  and  the  labour-leader.  The  instinct  of 
submission  or  self-abasement  (but  the  negative  form  of 
the  previous  instinct),  and  found  usually  to  be  present 
if  the  herd  instincts  are  strong,  is  responsible,  when 
it  is  the  only  tendency  which  is  well  emphasized,  for 
the  contentment  of  the  large  army  of  our  routine  workers. 
The  instinct  of  curiosity  is  perhaps  more  than  any  other 
instinct  responsible  for  the  persistence  of  our  men  of 
science,  our  naturalists  and  even  our  detectives.  Finally, 
it  is  the  instinct  of  ownership  which  perhaps  is  largely 
responsible  up  to  a  certain  point  for  the  commercial 
activities  of  men  and  women.  (We  speak  here  figuratively 
of  the  instincts  :  in  saying  that  an  instinct  functions 
strongly  we  mean  that  personality  functions  most 
readily  through  this  instinctive  reaction.) 

Let  the  whole  of  this  section  be  regarded  as  highly 
speculative,  as  indeed  it  is.  There  still  remains  the 
fact  that  we  all  have  within  us  decided  native  tendencies 
determining  our  interests  and  abilities.  Thorndike  has 
published  his  opinion,  based  on  research,  that  degree  of 
ability  closely  correlates  with  strength  of  interest,  and 
interest  is  but  another  name  for  instinct  viewed  from 
the  cognitive  aspect,  or,  let  us  say,  for  blends  and  re- 
finements of  instinctive  tendencies. 

It  would  be  hard  (he  says),  to  find  any  feature  of  a  human  being 
which  was  a  much  more  permanent  fact  of  his  nature  than  his 
relative  degrees  of  interest  in  different  lines  of  thought  and  action. 


VOCATIONAL   SELECTION  75 

Interests  are  also  shown  to  be  symptomatic,  to  a  very  great 
extent,  of  present  and  future  capacity  or  ability.  Either  because 
one  likes  what  he  can  do  well,  or  because  one  gives  zeal  and  effort 
to  what  he  likes,  or  because  interest  and  ability  are  both  symptoms 
of  some  fundamental  feature  of  the  individual's  original  nature, 
or  because  of  the  combined  action  of  all  three  of  these  factors, 
interest  and  ability  are  bound  very  closely  together.  The  bond 
is  so  close  that  either  may  be  used  as  a  symptom  for  the  other 
almost  as  well  as  for  itself.1 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  first  thing  to  be  done 
in  choosing  workers  for  particular  pursuits  is  to  determine 
whether  their  instinctive  type  is  the  right  one  for  the 
task.  It  would  be  folly  to  place  the  man  with  strong 
gregarious  tendencies  in  a  lighthouse  or  advise  him  to 
go  farming  in  a  new  colony  ;  just  as  it  would  be  folly  to 
advise  a  girl  with  a  strong  motherly  instinct  to  give  up  her 
life  to  mathematics,  or  the  roving  type  of  man  to  settle 
down  in  a  very  remote  country  village.  In  rare  cases 
only  would  there  be  enough  strength  of  mind  to  combat 
these  disturbing  factors.  In  times  of  stress  it  is  the 
worker  of  low-grade  intelligence  who  gives  way  first.  In 
the  higher  types  of  occupation  self-control  will  be  essential. 
But  in  dealing  with  workers  of  the  semi-educated  type, 
in  which  case  we  cannot  be  sure  of  the  existence  of  senti- 
ments or  ideals  capable  of  controlling  the  functioning  of 
crude  emotion  and  instinct  for  long  periods,  it  is  desirable 
that  we  should  be  able  to  apply  a  test  for  the  discovery 
of  the  relative  strength  of  the  primary  interests  or  instincts 
with  a  view  to  effecting  a  match  between  occupation 
and  temperament.  Whether  we  shall  be  able  to  construct 
tests  for  this  purpose,  the  next  few  years  will  prove. 

1  Popular  Science  Monthly,   1912. 


§3-    INTELLIGENCE    TESTS 

In  the  majority  of  occupations  the  principal  factor 
to  be  considered  will  usually  be  what  is  vaguely  called 
intelligence.  Workers  of  low-grade  intelligence  tend  to 
drift  into  the  worst-paid  occupations,  while  those  of 
approximately  equal  intelligence  tend  to  enter  similarly 
paid  occupations.  Differences  on  the  sensory  and  motor 
side  of  mind  are  in  most  callings,  other  than  purely  manual 
occupations,  less  significant  of  capacity  than  differences 
in  intellectual  ability.  Thus,  a  person  with  good  reason- 
ing powers  and  poor  sight  or  hearing  will  fill  a  post  of 
responsibility  much  more  effectively  than  a  person  of 
excellent  sight  and  hearing  but  of  poor  reasoning  powers. 
In  fact,  a  person  with  high  intellectual  ability  will  make 
good  in  most  non-manual  occupations  :  it  is  in  a  few  rather 
than  in  the  majority  of  callings  that  he  will  fail. 

What  is  intelligence  ?  Stern's  definition  runs  as 
follows  : — 

Intelligence  is  the  general  capacity  of  an  individual  consciously 
to  adjust  his  thinking  to  new  requirements  :  it  is  general  mental 
adaptability  to  new  problems  and  conditions  of  life.1 

The  virtue  of  this  definition  lies  in  its  emphasis  of  the 
creative  aspect  of  intelligence,  but  it  still  contains  in  it, 
in  the  word  "  thinking,"  the  intellectualistic  fallacy.  The 
action  of  a  person  in  stamping  out  the  flame  of  a  burn- 
ing piece  which  has  fallen  near  its  feet  is  none  the  less 
intelligent  because  it  is  also  instinctive.  As  Dr.  Myers 
said  a  few  years  ago  in  a  symposium  on  the  relation  of 
intelligence  to  instinct,  it  is  possible  to  demonstrate  the 
1  Psychological  Methods  of  Testing  Intelligence. 

76 


VOCATIONAL  SELECTION  77 

power  of  "  learning  from  experience  " ;  a  fundamental 
mark  of  intelligence,  as  low  down  in  the  scale  of  evolution 
as  the  ants,  at  least,  so  that  instinct  and  intelligence 
may  well  be  regarded  as  respectively  the  objective  and 
subjective  aspects  of  the  same  thing.  At  the  super- 
conscious  level,  one  might  add,  intelligence  and  intuition 
are  again  but  different  aspects  of  the  same  mental  process. 

The  variety,  indeed,  of  the  forms  in  which  person- 
ality may  express  itself,  in  the  movements  of  the  fingers, 
the  arms,  and  the  body,  no  less  than  in  words  from  the 
pen  or  mouth,  is  almost  infinite.  It  would  seem,  as  we 
have  said  elsewhere,  that  intelligence  for  a  long  time 
explores  all  the  possible  avenues  to  expression  and  tends 
to  remain  content  with  those  by  which  it  can  arrive  at 
the  greatest  satisfaction.  A  slum  environment  or  a 
defective  education  shuts  off  automatically  the  entrances 
to  many  of  these  avenues,  though  the  strongest  personality 
may  often  force  the  barriers. 

The  mechanical  factors  independent  of  conscious  im- 
provement which  function  in  our  human  complex  may  be 
separately  tested,  and  indeed  they  often  have  been, 
but  though  they  are  important  and  may  rightly  be  looked 
for  to  play  their  part  in  general  efficiency,  they  would 
seem  to  weigh  less  in  the  effectiveness  of  the  final  com- 
bination of  qualities  than  the  factors  of  a  higher  type. 
Thus  a  person  with  greater  persistence  of  interests  can 
often  surpass  another  whose  mental  tempo  may  be  speedier, 
while  a  man  with  great  reasoning  power,  comparatively 
deficient  in  persistence  and  in  mechanical  quickness,  may 
outwit  them  both.  The  fact  also  that  boys  or  girls  are 
remarkable  for  routine  skill  in  work  involving  little 
comprehension  of  general  principles  is  no  argument  for 
their  ability  to  perform  operations  involving  reasoning 
ability.  It  is  because  of  this  that  intelligence  tests  which 
have  called  for  the  highest  qualities  in  their  performance 
have  proved  most  successful  in  use.  But  so  far,  skill 
in  co-ordinated  movements  of  the  hands  or  body  generally 
has  been  neglected  in  many  of  our  tests,  and  we  have 


78      PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

not  sufficiently  differentiated  between  the  intelligence 
which  is  at  home  with  concrete  everyday  emergencies 
and  that  which  prefers  the  abstract  interests,  or  between 
the  intelligence  which  is  content  to  follow  the  beaten 
track  and  that  which  is  never  happy  unless  breaking  new 
ground. 

As  age  increases  a  man's  wits  may  not  remain  so  lively, 
and  yet  his  intellectual  quality  may  improve  ;  just  as 
he  loses  in  speed  of  bodily  reactions  so  he  may  tend  to 
lose  in  the  power  of  reacting  quickly  to  the  demands  of 
such  a  test  as  involves  speedy  decision  about  matters 
of  fact  he  may  know  quite  well ;  and,  moreover,  because 
he  will  find  fewer  occasions  for  exercising  speed  as  he 
exchanges  routine  operations  for  tasks  of  greater  respon- 
sibility involving  careful  deliberation :  quick  reaction  to 
environment  is  replaced  frequently  by  deliberation  as  to 
whether  reaction  is  worth  while. 

But  let  us  accept  as  a  fact  of  the  greatest  vocational 
significance  this  variation  in  the  tempo  of  intelligence. 
There  seems  to  be  very  little  doubt  that  modern  life, 
especially  as  we  see  it  in  towns,  where  after  all  the  majority 
of  us  live,  is  becoming  increasingly  suited  to  those  people 
who  possess  quickness  of  mind  rather  than  profundity. 
We  have  developed  systems  of  business  and  industry 
which  promote  hustle,  methods  of  travel  which  preclude 
the  possibility  of  leisurely  thought,  games  which  demand 
swift  movement  and  instant  decision,  newspapers  and 
amusements  which  emphasize  only  the  things  which  are 
on  the  crest  of  the  passing  wave,  and  fashions,  attitudes 
and  moods  which  express  nothing  but  novelty.  The 
most  valuable  qualities  a  person  can  possess,  if  he  must 
live  in  this  world  of  quick  change  of  the  sort  which  we 
have  indicated,  are  speedy  thinking  and  enterprise. 
The  slower  type  of  mind  must  be  content  to  await  the 
golden  moment  of  opportunity.  It  is  now  the  hour  of 
precocity  :  quick  to  mature  and  swift  to  perish  are  our 
modern  reputations. 

The   American   psychologists   who   were   called   in   to 


VOCATIONAL  SELECTION  79 

assist  the  Government  in  its  gigantic  task  of  organizing 
the  newly  recruited  armies  under  men  likely  to  make 
capable  leaders  decided  that  the  paramount  quality  which 
a  leader  should  possess  in  the  way  of  intelligence  is  the 
power  of  rapid  and  accurate  judgment.  In  emphasizing 
speed  of  reaction  they  acted  on  the  assumption,  no  doubt, 
that  the  ablest  men  are  generally  the  speediest  in  forming 
sound  judgments.  Such  men  as  were  in  this  way  selected 
were  probably  the  best  to  be  found  for  manning  the  lower 
posts  of  responsibility,  so  that  we  can  understand  the 
success  of  the  army  psychological  tests.  As  a  secondary 
result  of  the  application  of  the  tests,  the  principal  American 
trades,  occupations  and  professions  were  graded  in  accord- 
ance with  the  average  merit  shown  in  the  performances. 
Thus  engineer  officers  did  best  and  labourers  worst, 
a  result  which  we  might  have  anticipated.  It  is  prob- 
able, however,  that  the  kind  of  test  used  which  emphasizes 
speed  in  dealing  with  pencil  and  paper  problems  places 
those  engaged  in  clerical  professions  at  too  great  an 
advantage.  The  best  tests  for  general  intelligence  will 
probably  take  other  forms,  e.g.  those  of  reasoning  tests 
consisting  of  concrete  problems  graded  in  difficulty  and 
relating  to  everyday  affairs,  like  those  which  Mr.  Cyril 
Burt  has  published.1 

Dr.  Goddard2  has,  we  believe,  concluded  wrongly  that 
the  American  army  tests,  which  tap  but  one  kind  of 
intelligence,  are  a  fair  indication  of  the  mental  powers 
of  his  countrymen. 

As  partly,  but  not  completely,  representative  of  the 
American  Army  psychological  tests  we  may  quote  the  fol- 
lowing. (In  every  case  the  examiner  times  the  students 
and  reads  the  instructions.  The  work  sheets  have  thus 
no  instructions  printed  on  them.) 

o  o  o  o  o 

Place  a  cross  in  the  first  of  the  circles  and  a  figure  one  in  the 
third.  (Time,  5  sees,  allowed.} 

1  Journal  of  Experimental  Pedagogy,  June,  1919. 
3  See  Human  Efficiency  and  Levels  of  Intelligence. 


80      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 


2. 


Draw  a  line  from  circle  i  to  circle  4,  passing  above  circle  2  and 
below  circle  3.     (Time,  5  sees.) 


(a)  Place  a  cross  in  the  triangle,  but 
not  in  the  square,  and  the 
figure  3  in  the  square  and  in 
the  triangle. 

Place  a  figure  6  in  the  circle, 
but  not  in  the  triangle  or  the 
square. 

c]  Place  a  figure  2  in  the  triangle 
and  the  circle,  but  not  in  the 
square.  (Time,  10  sees,  each.} 


- 


O 


If  a  rifle  can  fire  more  bullets  than  a  machine-gun  in  a  given  time, 
put  a  cross  in  the  second  circle.  If  not,  draw  a  line  under  the 
third.  (Time,  10  sees.) 


O 


O    O 


Put  in  the  second  circle  the  right  number  of  months  in  the  year  and 
in  the  fourth  any  other  wrong  number.     (Time,  10  sees.) 

6.  ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP 

Cross  through  the  second  letter  and  draw  a  line  under  the  eighth. 
(Time,  10  sees.) 

7.  34  -  79  -  56  -  87  -  68  -  25  -  82  -  47 
27-31   -  64  -  93<  -  23  -  31    -  72  -  15 

29  -  80  -  32  -  21 

Cross    through    all    numbers    less    than    30   but   larger   than    20 
(Time,   15  sees.) 

8 


Cross  through  all  figures    other    than   squares  which  contain  an 
even  number. 

Cross  through  squares  containing  an  odd  number  and  a  letter, 
(Time,  25  sees.) 


VOCATIONAL   SELECTION  81 

The  principal  adverse  criticisms  which  suggest  them- 
selves in  connection  with  most  of  the  psychological 
tests  such  as  these  may  be  briefly  summarized  : — 

1.  They  over-emphasize  the  factor  of  speed  in  intelli- 

gent reaction.  While  they  may  be  excellent 
for  the  diagnosis  of  ability  to  fill  minor  executive 
positions  where  promptness  and  despatch  are 
important,  they  would  rarely  reveal  an  Edison  or 
a  Darwin  if  of  slower  reaction  but  of  enormously 
greater  intelligence. 

2.  They  place  workers  who  do  not  follow  clerical  occu- 

pations at  a  disadvantage.1  That  is,  they  do 
not  test  abilities  which  are  often  largely  inde- 
pendent of  general  intellectual  ability,  so  that 
there  are  qualities  of  intelligence  which  may  not 
find  a  natural  means  of  expression  through 
these  tests. 

3.  They  neglect   to   take  into   consideration   tempera- 

ment, specific  interests  which  are  not  literary  or 
mathematical,  and  other  emotional  factors. 

In  short,  to  show  an  inability  to  score  at  these  tests 
may  not  mean  that  the  subject  is  unintelligent. 

Yet  though  from  some  points  of  view  the  American 
type  of  test  may  appear  defective,  it  must  not  be  sup- 
posed that  it  is  without  considerable  virtue.  If  such 
tests  over-emphasize  speed,  it  must  not  be  thought  that 
speed  is  always  found  together  with  carelessness.  Ex- 
perimental work  suggests  very  strongly  that  the  presence 
of  one  good  quality  is  more  likely  to  involve  the  presence 
of  other  good  qualities  than  not.  It  is  popularly  supposed 
that  there  is  a  law  of  compensation  which  holds  both 
in  the  physical  and  in  the  mental  world.  Thus  those 
who  are  slow  are  thought  to  be  more  reliable  than  those 
who  are  quick ;  that  those  who  are  good  at  theory 

1  This  objection  does  not  apply  to  the  "  form-board  "  test, 
ability  to  do  well  at  which  involves  the  quick  recognition  of  and 
aptitude  to  deal  with  geometrical  forms. 

6 


82      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

are  more  often  than  not  bad  at  practice,  and  that 
those  who  learn  easily  forget  quickly.  It  is  probably 
because  of  the  dramatic  character  of  such  incidents 
as  would  suggest  the  truth  of  this  view  that  we  are  led 
to  believe  in  the  compensation  theory.  On  the  whole, 
though  we  have  said  that  such  tests  as  the  American 
Army  tests  would  fail  to  reveal  an  Edison  or  a  Darwin,  this 
kind  of  case  will  be  exceptional. 

But    the    psychological    test   when    perfected   will   be 
useful  in  three  distinct  ways.      In  the  first  place  it  will 


Rank. 

Grades  of  Intelligence,  from  Very  Superior  (A)  to  Very  Inferior  (B). 

A 

B 

C+ 

c 

C- 

D 

B 

8,819    Officers 

48-4 

34-6 

13-8 

2*92 

0-25 

O'OI 

_ 

9,240      O.T.C. 

36-8 

36-4 

19*5 

6-16 

0-98 

0-14 

— 

3,393      Sergts. 

20-9 

32-5 

27*3 

14-2 

4'°5 

1-05 

— 

4,023     Corpls. 

13-7 

26-O 

3i'3 

20-33 

7*33 

i'33 

— 

81,114   Literate 
privates 
10,803  Illiterate 
privates 

6*37 
0-52 

12*38 

i'95 

20-48 
4'43 

28-79 
14-67 

21-48 
29-  ii 

10-24 
41-16 

0'2 

7-8 

From  The  Psychological  Bulletin  XV.  183. 

eliminate  personal  bias  ;  for  example,  it  is  difficult  to 
escape  belief  that  good  education,  or  good  dress,  or  good 
manners,  or  fluency  of  speech,  or  positiveness  of  state- 
ment, or  determination  in  one  way  or  another,  or  all 
these  things  together,  are  not  proportionate  to  the  amount 
of  intelligence  of  the  person  in  whom  they  appear.  In 
addition,  the  psychologist  is  often  able  to  provide  us 
with  standards  or  forms  calculated  from  the  performance 
of  many  thousands  of  subjects,  so  that  the  performance 
of  any  fresh  subject  can  be  readily  compared  with  the 


VOCATIONAL  SELECTION  83 

average  performance.  Moreover,  the  application  of  the 
psychological  test  saves  time.  One  can  find  out  in  an 
hour  what  the  careful  observer  has  only  found  out  through 
the  experience  of  months  or  years.  In  the  table  on 
p.  82  we  have  represented  the  test  performances  of  over 
124,000  American  soldiers  who  in  this  case  had  found  their 
level  in  the  Army  after  much  effort  and  time.  It  will 
be  seen  that  their  performances  in  the  tests  suggest  that 
they  could  practically  have  been  placed  right  away  into 
the  positions  they  had  gained.  Certain  exceptions  would 
appear,  but  we  must  remember  that  the  tests  used  only 
revealed  intellectual  ability  and  not  such  character  quali- 
ties as  are  only  vaguely  known  to  be  connected  with  them. 

THE   CONSTRUCTION   OF  TESTS. 

There  are  two  precautions  which  should  be  observed 
by  those  who  think  of  applying  psychological  tests  for 
the  determination  of  vocational  fitness.  In  the  first 
place  it  should  be  understood  that  a  single  psychological 
test  may  reveal  little  that  is  completely  reliable  about  a 
person's  abilities,  so  that  a  series  of  such  tests  systematic- 
ally planned  to  cover  as  many  of  the  varied  manifesta- 
tions of  human  character  and  intelligence  as  possible 
should  be  employed.  In  the  second  place,  there  is  always 
the  probability  that  the  untrained  investigator  will  stumble 
into  every  one  of  the  pits  which  beset  the  path  of  the 
scientific  investigator. 

We  may  construct  psychological  tests  of  .vocational 
aptitudes  in  two  ways.  First,  we  may  take  the  work 
for  which  we  intend  to  diagnose  fitness  and  analyse  it 
so  that  we  can  find  the  elementary  qualities  involved  ; 
then  we  shall  be  able  to  test  the  efficiency  of  subjects 
in  each  separate  quality ;  we  may  call  this  method 
provisionally  the  analytic  method.  Or  we  may,  as  before, 
analyse  out  the  elementary  qualities  involved  and  then 
construct  a  test  which  necessitates  their  all  functioning 
in  much  the  same  proportion  as  in  the  actual  task ;  this 
is  the  analogous  or  synthetic  method. 


84      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

The  two  methods  must  obviously  depend  for  their 
success  upon  the  correct  isolation  of  the  separate  factors 
involved  in  a  particular  kind  of  mental  activity,  and 
some  people  may  object  with  good  reason  that  such 
attempts  at  isolation  lead  to  the  construction  of  artificial 
abstractions  which  are  in  no  way  related  to  the  facts. 
For  example,  most  of  the  popularly  supposed  mental 
elements,  such  as  observation,  imagination,  attention, 
memory,  and  so  on,  are  anything  but  elementary. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  analogous  method  of  construct- 
ing psychological  tests,   we  may  quote  the   classic   test 
which   Professor  Miinsterberg  invented  for  the   purpose 
of  diagnosing  what  may  be  called  "  car-driving  "  ability. 
He  gauged  the  ability  of  intending  "motor  men"  to  take 
up  car-driving  by  their  efficiency  in   detecting  quickly 
and    reacting    adequately    to    certain    significant    figures 
printed  on  a  card  over  which,  as  they  turned  a  handle, 
a  travelling  band  passed  with  a  slit  in  it.     The  slit  moved 
in  a  straight  line  revealing  a  few  of  the  figures  at  a  time. 
Along  the  centre  of  the  track  of  the  slit  the  car  might 
be  considered  to  be  travelling,  and  by  manipulation  of 
the  handle  the  pace  could  be  controlled  by  the  operator. 
On  each  side  of  the  line  of  the  car's  advance  there  were 
to  be  seen  figures  in  two  colours,  those  in  one  colour 
representing    passengers   on   foot,   horse-drawn   vehicles, 
and  automobiles  which  were  moving  parallel  to  the  track, 
and  those  in  the  other  colour  representing  the  same  classes 
of   persons   and   things   moving   across   the   track.     The 
positions  of  these  latter  figures  relative  to  the  track  either 
denoted  or  else  did  not  denote  the  fact  that  they  were 
supposed  to  arrive  on  the  track  at  the  same  moment  as 
the  rear  edge  of  the  moving  slit,  and  this  would  or  would 
not   mean   that   an   accident-situation  had   arisen.     The 
subject's    ability  to    detect    quickly   accident-situations 
could   accordingly  be  estimated.     Miinsterberg  said  that 
the  trained  motor  men  who  were  sent  to  him  for  trial  tests 
could  be  sorted  out  by  means  of  this  test  and  graded 
in  very  much  the  same  order  as  that  in  which  they  stood 


VOCATIONAL   SELECTION  85 

with  respect  to  actual  trade  ability.  In  this  second  type 
of  test,  however,  one  cannot  be  absolutely  sure  that  one 
is  not  testing  what  may  be  called  general  intelligence 
rather  than  that  specific  form  of  it  which  is  demanded 
in  car-driving.1 

Having  decided  upon  psychological  tests  which  we  may 
consider  to  be  suitable  for  use  in  a  particular  case,  the 
next  thing  to  do  is  to  discover  to  what  extent  these 
tests  are  reliable.  This  is  an  important  stage  in  their 
use.  The  reliability  of  a  test  is  investigated,  as  a  rule, 
through  a  comparison  of  the  grading  into  which  it  sorts 
out  a  number  of  subjects  with  the  grading  earned  for 
their  ability  in  the  actual  work.  Suppose  that  we  decide 
that  five  persons  can  be  graded  by  the  decision  of  two 
independent  judges  with  respect  to  their  salesmanship 
in  the  order  :  A,  B,  C,  D,  E.  As  a  result  of  the  grading 
by  psychological  tests,  the  order  may  conceivably  be  : 


(I) 

A, 

B, 

c, 

D, 

E; 

(2) 

E, 

D, 

c, 

B, 

A; 

(3) 

c, 

B, 

E, 

D, 

A  ;     or 

(4) 

B, 

A, 

D, 

E, 

C. 

In  these  simple  examples  we  can  see  at  once  how  closely 
the  results  correspond  to  the  actual  facts.  By  the  use 
of  a  mathematical  formula  we  can  get  a  measure  of  the 
extent  of  the  correspondence  of  the  test  order  with  the 
trade  order  when  it  is  not  so  apparent  from  an  inspection. 
This  formula,  called  the  correlation  formula,  is  usually 
written  (the  Spearman  form)  as— 

6_X_sum  d2 


n  (n2  —  i) 

where  d  is  the  difference  in  the  rank  order  of  each  par- 
ticular individual  tested,  and  n  the  number  of  individuals, 
r  being  the  symbol  of  correlation. 

1  See  criticism  "of  this  test  by  Mr.   Cyril  Burt   in   Lectures  on 
Industrial  Administration  (Pitman). 


86      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

In  the  above  cases  the  use  of  the  formula  would  give 
the  following  results: — 

CASE  i. 

There  is  obviously  complete  correspondence,  in  which 
case  the  formula  becomes 


r  =  I  — 


6xo 

n  (n3  -  i) 


_o=  +  i 


CASE  2. 


Estimated  Rank. 

Test  Rank. 

d. 

A 

E 

4 

B 

D 

2 

C 

C 

0 

D 

B 

2 

E 

A 

4 

d*. 

16 

4 
o 

4 
16 


Sum  =  40 


r  —  i  — 


6-40 


—  complete  inverse  correlation. 


CASE  3. 


Estimated  Rank. 

Test  Rank. 

d. 

J* 

A 

C 

2 

i 

B 

B 

0 

9 

C 

E 

2 

4 

D 

D 

0 

0 

E 

A 

4 

4 

r  —  i  — 


6-18 


5-24 

12  I 

120         IO 


Sum  =  18 


==  +  o-i 

=  (practically)  absence  of  correlation 


VOCATIONAL   SELECTION  87 

CASE  4. 

Estimated  Rank.         TwtlRank.  d.  d*. 

A  B  i  i 

B  A  i  i 

C  D  i  I 

D  E  i  I 

E  C  2  4 

Sum  =*  8 

6-8 

v  •«  i 

5-24 

*-  -f  0-6 
=  fairly  high  correlation. 

A  test  which  is  satisfactory  should  give  a  correlation 
of  +0*6  or  upwards.  Complete  correspondence  is  rarely 
found  because  of  the  presence  of  elusive  factors  which  are 
apparently  responsible  for  small  errors  functioning  in  both 
the  test  and  the  construction  of  the  trade  ability  estimate. 
Thus  we  have  frequently  found  that  instructors  and 
foremen  are  unable  to  judge  their  workers  by  their  trade 
ability  alone.  Another  measure  usually  employed  which 
provides  a  further  check  upon  the  reliability  of  our  tests 
is  called  the  probable  error.  When  this  is  comparatively 
large  we  should  suspect  the  general  validity  of  our 
results.  Readers  will  find  in  the  text-books  of  experi- 
mental psychology  all  the  particulars  of  mental  measure- 
ment necessary  in  this  connection. 

The  strategic  objection,  then,  to  make  to  the  psychologist 
who  claims  to  be  able  to  grade  workers  by  their  ability, 
should  take  the  concrete  form  of  a  challenge  to  him  to 
grade  correctly,  by  means  of  his  tests,  five  or  six  workers 
whose  trade  rank  or  intelligence  has  been  agreed  upon 
by  at  least  two  independent  judges  capable  of  estimating 
their  ability. 

When  the  American  psychologists  were  faced  in  the 
war  with  the  task  of  filling  up  the  technical  units  of  the 
army  with  the  men  best  qualified  for  service  in  them, 
they  proceeded  with  their  task  in  the  following  manner. 


88      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

They  conceived  their  problem  to  be  divisible  into  four 
stages  : 

1.  To  construct  a  tentative  list  of  "  trade  "  questions 

and   a   tentative   practical   task. 

2.  To  try  these  questions  and  the  task  on  men  of  the 

specified  trade  with  different  degrees  of  ability. 

3.  To    revise    the    tests    in    the    light    of    experience 

gained. 

4.  To  try  out  the  tests  once  again  on  eighty  men  chosen 

as  follows  : — 

Twenty  men  to  be  experts  in  the  specified  trade, 
Twenty  men  to  be  of  ordinary  skill, 
Twenty  men  to  be  apprentices, 
Twenty  men  to  be  novices  ;    and 

5.  To  make  further  revision  of  the  test  in  light  of  new 
experience. 

These  trade  tests  were  successful  to  the  following  extent 
in  showing  individual  differences.  On  an  average  they 
placed  6  per  cent,  men  tested  as  expert,  24  per  cent,  as 
"  journeymen,"  40  per  cent,  as  apprentices,  and  30  per 
cent,  as  novices,  while  in  their  use  with  men  of  known 
capacity  they  correlated  very  highly  with  results  based 
on  known  capacity. 

This  points,  then,  to  the  procedure  to  be  adopted  in 
constructing  a  psychological  test  for  fitness  for  a  given 
piece  of  work. 

1.  First  analyse  the  work. 

2.  Choose  the  chief  capacities  involved. 

3.  Arrange   a  series   of  tests  for  the   chief   capacities 

or  construct  a  single  test  involving  them  all. 

4.  Try   out    these    tests   upon    a   number   of   subjects 

(e.g.,  30)  employed  on  the  work  analysed  and 
see  that  representatives  of  excellent,  fair  and  poor 
workers  are  all  experimented  on. 


VOCATIONAL   SELECTION  89 

5.  Get  a  trade  ability  arrangement  of  these  workers. 

6.  Choose  for  your  standard  test  that  of  which  the 

results  correlate  most  highly  (above  +  0'6)  with 
the  trade  ability  arrangement  of  the  subjects 
of  your  experiments. 

We  may  say  here  by  way  of  conclusion  to  this  section 
that  we  believe  experience  will  point  to  the  advisability  of 
each  industry  developing  its  own  types  of  intelligence  test. 
Thus  the  intelligence  test  devised  in  order  to  reveal 
"  fitting  "  ability  will  be  one  embodying  a  task  which 
appeals  to  the  constructive  engineering  interest  of  the 
fitter  (his  love  of  making  things  work),  as  well  as  to  his 
intellectual  powers  and  manipulative  skill.  The  tendency 
to  suppose  that  any  other  kind  of  test — for  example,  a 
language  test — may  reveal  an  aptitude  and  an  ability  so 
specific  is  probably  unsound.  Thus  Miinsterberg's  test  for 
tram-drivers  was  excellent  up  to  a  certain  point,  but 
because  it  did  not  appeal  to  an  interest  in  cars  and 
streets,  all  the  university  graduates  who  worked  the  test 
were  able  to  show  better  results  than  the  best  drivers. 
Herein,  then,  lay  the  defect  of  an  otherwise  excellent 
test. 


§  4.  VOCATIONAL    PSYCHOLOGY 

What  we  have  attempted  to  do  so  far  is  to  illustrate 
the  psychological  method  of  attack  upon  the  problem 
of  Vocational  Selection.  This  problem  involves,  in  the 
first  place,  an  analysis  of  abilities  and  aptitudes  and  the 
construction  of  tests  for  their  diagnosis ;  and,  in  the  second 
place,  an  analysis  of  interests  and  the  construction  of 
tests  for  them. 

The  work  of  determining  the  qualities  required  in  an 
occupation  or  calling  is  often  called  vocational  psycho- 
graphy  ;  the  list  of  qualities  itself  is  usually  spoken  of  as 
a  vocational  psychograph.  Professor  Seashore,  for  ex- 
ample, has  elaborated  in  great  detail  the  psychograph 
of  a  singer,  and  mentions  such  abilities  as  keen  pitch, 
rhythm  and  timbre  discrimination,  good  auditory  imagery, 
long  auditory  memory  span,  big  range  of  voice,  ability 
to  sing  in  tune  and  in  time,  steady  control  of  breath, 
sensitiveness  to  emotional  expression,  marked  creative 
imagination,  etc.  The  difficulty  in  testing  for  each  of 
these  qualities  separately  is  (i)  to  be  sure  that  you  are 
isolating  them  ;  and  (2)  to  know  what  relative  value  they 
possess  in  the  total  psychograph. 

It  has  been  our  point  that  intelligence  cannot  be  divorced 
from  character,  and  the  tests  which  are  given  upon  the 
assumption  that  the  two  are  separate  will  fail.  Intelli- 
gence itself  is  an  extraordinarily  complex  thing.  It  varies 
in  quality  as  well  as  in  quantity.  It  is  affected  in  its 
manifestations  largely  by  the  environment  as  well  as  by 
heredity.  Suppose,  for  example,  it  is  discovered  that  a 
subject  has  marked  ability  or  interest  in  construction, 

90 


VOCATIONAL  SELECTION  91 

then  the  way  in  which  this  ability  or  interest  finds  a  way 
out  into  expression  will  depend  particularly  on  the  home, 
the  school  and  the  social  circle  in  which  he  has  been  brought 
up.  But  it  will  also  depend  on  native  factors  beyond 
our  power  of  modifying  very  largely.  Whether  the 
subject  will  use  his  interest  and  ability  in  construction 
as  an  inventor,  an  engineer,  a  sculptor,  a  carpenter,  a 
dramatist,  an  artist,  or  a  statesman,  will  depend  upon 
the  presence  or  absence  of  such  native  factors  as  physical 
strength,  sensitiveness  of  fingers,  dexterity  in  the  use 
of  hands,  language  ability,  colour  sense,  musical  ability, 
and  so  on.  For  example,  if  the  subject  lacks  sensitiveness 
of  fingers  or  dexterity  in  the  use  of  his  hands — things  not 
easily  cultivated  when  almost  absent  or  extremely  poor — 
he  will  never  make  a  carpenter,  an  engineer,  or  a  sculptor. 
If  he  has  no  language  ability,  he  will  never  become  a 
dramatist.  If  he  is  colour  blind,  or  has  a  poor  colour  sense, 
he  will  never  make  a  great  painter,  but  he  may  become  a 
successful  sculptor. 

Intelligence,  in  addition,  then,  to  functioning  through 
what  we  may  loosely  call  here  intellectual  ability,  func- 
tions also  through  several  other  more  or  less  independent 
specific  forms.  It  would  seem  as  though  our  mental 
energy  is  able  to  flow  more  easily  in  one  channel  of  ex- 
pression than  in  another,  just  as  we  find  it  possible  to 
achieve  greater  and  more  delicate  self-expression  through 
one  hand  than  through  the  other  (so  that  ambidexterity 
is  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule).  Extremely  great 
routine  skill  is  possible  through  the  development  of 
specific  abilities  apart  from  that  of  the  general  intelligence. 
Our  factories  teem  with  adolescents  who  find  few  other 
outlets  for  intelligence  in  their  work  except  it  be  through 
motor  dexterity. 

Motor  dexterity  is  a  well-established  specific  ability. 
In  the  schools  we  find  many  children  who  excel  in  a  marked 
manner  in  handwork  occupations,  in  drawing,  penman- 
ship, painting,  modelling,  needlework,  and  games  involving 
hand  and  eye  co-ordination,  who  are  not  always  the  best 


92      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

children  in  point  of  all-round  ability.  Precision  and 
speed  of  movement  on  a  large  or  a  small  scale  is  an  essential 
aptitude  for  many  occupations,  and  a  test  of  ability  in 
such  movement  is  urgently  necessary.  A  test  which 
contains  possibilities  is  the  Pegging  Board  Test.1  It 
consists  of  a  board  about  2  feet  square  divided  into 
625  smaller  squares,  each  of  which  contains  a  hole.  Into 
these  holes  pegs  may  be  placed.  A  simple  test  of  speed 
would  be  to  measure  the  time  taken  in  pegging  a  square 
of  100  holes.  Better  tests,  because  they  involve  the  use 
of  a  larger  measure  of  general  intelligence,  would  be 
tests  calling  for  the  speedy  imitation  of  a  peg-pattern 
of  some  complexity,  or  the  making  of  a  pattern  in 
accordance  with  verbal  or  written  instructions.  The 
imitation  on  the  right  side  of  the  board  of  a  pattern  made 
on  the  left  is  usually  sufficiently  difficult  to  bring  out 
significant  individual  differences.  Motor  dexterity  is 
the  mechanical  basis  for  scientific  and  artistic  skill,  and 
it  may  be  that  if  we  can  construct  good  tests  for 
motor  dexterity  varying  with  each  industry,  then  a  know- 
ledge of  a  subject's  interests  and  of  the  quality  of  his 
intellectual  powers  will  in  addition  give  us  as  good 
grounds  for  an  estimate  of  his  scientific  or  artistic 
skill  as  we  can  at  present  hope  to  get. 

It  is  generally  assumed  that  mathematical  ability  is 
specific.  In  vocational  practice  there  is  little  need  to  test 
mathematical  ability,  but  it  will  be  frequently  necessary 
to  test  calculating  ability  (by  some  investigators  taken 
to  be  distinct  from  mathematical  ability,  though  itself 
specific).  According  to  the  results  of  investigations, 
ability  in  calculating  is  best  evidenced  in  the  first  minute 
of  a  series  of  several  minutes'  work.  Thus  Phillips a 
found  that  the  performance  of  pupils  who  added  con- 
tinuously for  ten  minutes  was  better  by  6  per  cent,  to 
12  per  cent,  in  first  minute  than  in  any  subsequent 

1  This  test  will  be  found  described  in  Choosing  Employees  by 
Test.     By  W.  F.  Kemble. 
a  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology,  1916. 


VOCATIONAL   SELECTION  93 

minute.  Chapman  and  Nolan I  found  practically  the 
same  thing  ;  the  average  performance  of  the  first  half 
minute  exceeded  the  average  work  in  the  remaining 
nineteen  half  minutes  by  29  per  cent. 

To  test  calculating  ability  we  need,  therefore,  do 
nothing  more  than  arrange  for  a  test  such  as  the 
following  : 

On  the  back  of  this  page  you  will  find  several  columns  of  figures. 
At  the  signal  "  Begin,"  turn  over  and  add  up  the  figures  in  each 
column  as  quickly  as  possible.  At  the  end  of  one  minute  you 
will  be  told  to  stop. 

Back. 


8 

6 

2 

9 

3 

7 

4 

i 

5 

8 

5 

9 

6 

7 

5 

3 

i 

6 

7 

2 

2 

8 

5 

9 

3 

7 

I 

3 

9 

9 

7 

4 

5 

4 

9 

5 

2 

8 

3 

7 

9 

7 

9 

8 

2 

8 

7 

3 

i 

4 

8 

5 

2 

6 

9 

4 

8 

i 

3 

7 

2 

2 

7 

6 

7 

3 

9 

6 

i 

4 

3 

4 

8 

2 

3 

6 

5 

9 

3 

i 

6 

3 

9 

4 

6 

6 

3 

6 

6 

4 

4 

8 

4 

2 

5 

9 

6 

3 

7 

i 

7 

8 

5 

4 

i 

5 

3 

8 

5 

8 

4 

I 

7 

2 

5 

8 

5 

9 

8 

8 

i 

6 

i 

8 

4 

7 

4 

i 

5 

6 

9 

2 

7 

9 

6 

7 

9 

5 

3 

6 

i 

7 

4 

8 

2 

i 

7 

2 

3 

7 

The  performance  in  a  test  of  this  kind  will  depend  to 
some  extent  on  previous  training.  Subjects  who  have 
been  doing  office  work  will  add  on  an  average  eight 
columns  while  others  will  average  four. 

A  third  specific  ability  is  language  ability.  Mr.  Cyril 
Burt  would  differentiate  between  linguistic  ability  and 
literary  ability,  which,  in  addition  to  the  power  of  under- 
standing and  using  skilfully  the  mother  tongue,  seems  to 
involve  aesthetic  appreciation  of  language  as  a  means 
of  self-expression.  Language  ability  is  apparently, 
therefore,  the  basis  fundamental  to  literary  ability.  It 
is  an  essential  factor  in  the  intelligence  of  the  secretary- 

1  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  1916. 


94      PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 


clerk  and  the  journalist.  A  test  suitable  for  diagnosing 
the  linguistic  ability  of  journalists  which  we  have  found 
useful  is  the  following  : — 

Look  carefully  at  each  word  in  capitals  in  the  following  list, 
and  notice  the  meanings  put  opposite  to  each.  One  or  more  of 
these  meanings  may  be  correct,  but  ALL  may  be  incorrect.  Place 
a  tick  under  each  correct  meaning  and  cross  out  all  false  meanings. 


ABEYANCE  . 
ACETIC 

ADUMBRATE 
ADVENTITIOUS 
AGONISTIC    . 
ALLUSORY    . 
ANAGRAM      . 

APTEROUS  . 
ARTESIAN  . 
BASTINADO  . 
BUZZARD  . 
CALENDER  . 

CALIBRE 
CONGERIES  . 
ELIGIBLE      . 
EMPIRIC 

EPHEMERAL 
FERMENTATION 

FIGMENT 
FORMIC 
FRIABLE 
GEMINATE 


state  of  suspension  ;    grounds  of  an  abbey, 
disdainful  of  pleasures  ;    a  hard  strict  kind 

of  life. 

to  sound  faintly  ;    to  shadow  forth, 
accidental ;  full  of  risk  ;  belonging  to  advent, 
athletic  ;   full  of  agony/ 
deceptive  ;  attractive. 
a  whole  gram  ;    a  wireless  message  ;    a  kind 

of  diagram. 

having  wings  ;   very  apt. 
a  workman  ;   a  skilled  workman, 
an  earthwork  ;   a  form  of  punishment, 
a  buzzing  bee  ;    i  species  of  linnet, 
a  machine  for  pressing  ;    a  register  of  days, 

weeks,  months,  etc. 

mental  capacity  ;   diameter  of  a  hollow  tube, 
large  sea-eels  ;    a  mass  of  particles, 
not  easy  to  read  ;    easy  to  read, 
known    by    experience  ;      belonging    to    an 

empire. 

not  manly  ;    lasting  for  a  short  time, 
lathing    with    warm    water ;     stirring    with 

anger  ;   chemical  change, 
composed  of  figs  ;   an  invention, 
according  to  form  ;    derived  from  ants, 
able  to  be  fried  ;    apt  to  crumble, 
act  of  budding  ;   to  sprout ;   act  of  doubling. 


VOCATIONAL   SELECTION 


HEBDOMADAL 

HERMETIC  . 
HIBERNIZATION 

HYSTERESIS 
INTERMEZZO 

LENTOID 
LITTORAL     . 

MERETRICIOUS 
METRONYMIC 

NOSOLOGY  . 
OBFUSCATE  . 
OBSECRATE . 

OCELLATE  . 
PASTEURIZE 
PERPETRATE 

PHILTER 
PROSCRIBE 

PROTEAN       . 
RESPECTIVELY 
RETORT 
SANDALWOOD 

SATYRICAL  . 
SUMPTUARY 


.   connected    with    the    stomach ;      occurring 

weekly. 

.   magical ;    belonging  to  the  hermit. 
.   becoming  Irish  ;    act  of  passing  the  winter 

in  sleep. 

.   a  magnetic  phenomenon  ;    state  of  hysteria. 
.   a  voice  between  soprano  and  alto  in  quality  ; 

an  interlude. 
.   belonging  to  Lent ;    shaped  like  a  lens  ;    a 

kind  of  lentil. 
.   the  sea-shore  ;    plain  in  meaning  ;    according 

to  the  letter. 

.   full  of  merit ;    gaudy  and  deceitful. 
.   a  name  derived  from  one's  mother  ;  measured 

by  a  metronome. 

.  science  of  noses  ;   science  of  diseases. 
.  to  smell  badly  ;    to  darken. 
.  to  curse  ;    to  treat  shamefully  ;    to  beseech, 

implore. 

.   to  vibrate  ;    to  move  in  suspension. 
.   to  sterilize  ;    to  put  out  to  grass. 
.  to  make  last  for  a  long  time  ;    to  make  last 

for  ever. 
.  to  strain  through  a  sieve  ;  a  charm  to  awaken 

love. 

.   to  give  directions  for  -as  a  remedy  ;   to  pub- 
lish names  of  persons  to  be  punished. 
.   an  element  in  foods  ;    variable. 
.   with  becoming  respect ;    full  of  respect. 
.   a  sharp  reply  ;  a  vessel  used  in  distillation. 
.   wood    used   in   France   for   making   wooden 

shoes  ;   a  sweet-smelling  wood. 
.   sarcastic  ;      abusive  ;     scornful ;     part-man, 

part-goat. 
.   costly  ;     magnificent ;    a  mule  for  carrying 

burdens. 


96      PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

TAXIDERMIST       .   a   man   who   makes   taximeters ;     one   who 

stuffs  skins  of  animals. 

TRUCULENT  .  flowing  easily  ;   fierce  and  cruel ;   boastful. 

UNAPPRIZED          .   without  a  prize  ;   uninformed. 
VIRAGO          .          .   a  kind  of  bird  ;    a  disease  ;    giddiness. 
VITREOUS     .          .   glassy  ;  belonging  to  a  very  powerful  acid. 

A  case  has  been  made,  and  we  think  with  success, 
by  Dr.  N.  McQueen  *  for  the  existence  of  specific  forms 
of  attention  ability,  especially  of  the  ability  to  distribute 
attention  in  a  definite  way.  There  have  been  distinctions 
noted  in  the  past  between  the  fixating  and  fluctuating 
types  of  attention.  The  distributive  mind  can  fixate 
or  fluctuate  at  will  in  some  particular  direction. 
McQueen  found  no  correlation  between  general  intelligence 
and  the  power  to  distribute  attention.  In  some  occupa- 
tions the  ability  to  distribute  attention  is  of  great  import- 
ance, for  example  in  'bus  driving  and  telephone  operating. 
It  is  essential,  too,  in  organization  and  administration. 
Munsterberg's  Test  for  Motormen  is  an  example  of  a 
test  which  may  be  used  for  diagnosing  one  type  of  this 
ability,  while  another  excellent  test  is  the  test  in  Whipple's 
Manual  of  Physical  and  Mental  Tests  used  for  illustrating 
simultaneous  disparate  activities.  It  involves  the  finding 
and  placing  out  of  the  letters  of  an  alphabet  with  one 
hand  while  the  other  is  being  employed  in  placing  rings 
on  an  upright  metal  pillar. 

***** 

In  conclusion  we  would  say  here  that  the  fact  that 
certain  mechanical  aptitudes  are  essential  to  the  develop- 
ment of  skill  in  any  occupation  does  not  mean  that  we 
should  overlook  the  equally  important  fact  that  interest 
and  intelligence  are  needed  to  sustain  them  in  working 
efficiency.  The  opinion  most  popular  at  the  moment  is 
that  there  is  a  place  in  the  industrial  mechanism  where 
each  of  us  should  naturally  be  fitted,  and  that  once  there 

1  The  Distribution  of  Intelligence  (Brit.  Jour.  Psych.  Monograph, 
No5). 


VOCATIONAL   SELECTION  97 

we  shall  find  that  all  will  be  for  the  best  in  the  best  of 
all  possible  worlds.  It  is  to  be  feared,  however,  that  the 
social  mechanism  into  which  some  reformers  would  have 
us  fit  ourselves  will  be  no  more  than  a  mechanism,  rigid 
and  static.  Life,  however,  can  never  be  confined  within 
moulds  or  fetters,  so  that  the  industrial  system  which 
is  to  secure  man's  lasting  support  must  allow  him  grow- 
ing room.1  In  short,  there  must  be  provided  outlets 
for  initiative  accessible  to  all,  or  vocational  selection 
may  be  rightly  suspected  as  a  sinister  method  of  stereo- 
typing status  in  the  industrial  world. 

1  The  writer  is  engaged  on  a  fuller  treatment  of  the  subject 
of  vocational  selection  to  be  published  shortly  in  book  form. 

REFERENCES 
BURT,   CYRIL:    See   Essay   in    Industrial  Administration    (Pitman 

&  Co.). 

CHAPMAN,  J.  C.  :   Army  Trade  Tests  (New  York). 
HOLLINGWORTH,  H. :    Vocational  Psychology. 
LINK,  HENRY  C.  :  Employment  Psychology. 
Muscio,  B. :    Lectures  in  Industrial  Psychology. 
WATTS,   FRANK  :    The  Outlook  for    Vocational  Selection   (Br.    Jrnl. 

Psych.,  xi.  2). 

WHIPPLE,  G.  M. :  Manual  of  Physical  and  Mental  Tests. 
YOAKUM,  C.  S.  and  YERKES,  R.  M. :    Mental  Tests  in  the  American 

Army. 


CHAPTER  V 

SCIENTIFIC    MANAGEMENT   AND    LABOUR 

§  i.  TAYLORISM  :  FIRST  PHASE 

ATTENTION  to  the  worker's  needs  will  enable  us  to  eliminate 
a  considerable  amount  of  unnecessary  unrest,  but  not 
all.  There  seems  reason  to  believe  that  much  mental 
dissatisfaction  may  remain  even  when  working  methods  are 
perfect.  Can  we  root  out  the  worst  forms  of  fatigue 
and  solve  our  industrial  problems  by  a  more  complete 
re-organization  of  our  industrial  life  ?  The  consideration 
of  this  question  is  a  psychological  necessity.  Now, 
scientific  management  aims  at  the  thorough-going  re- 
organization  of  industry  in  the  interests  of  the  greatest 
possible  efficiency.  It  is  often  assumed  that  scientific 
management  is  a  device  of  employers  for  getting  the 
last  ounce  of  effort  out  of  labour,  but  labour  in  control 
of  industry  might,  however,  adopt  scientific  management 
equally  well  as  an  easy  and  pleasant  way  of  securing  its 
own  well-defined  ends.  It  is,  therefore,  worthy  of  the 
best  attention  of  those  who  are  interested  not  only  in 
the  elimination  of  fatigue  from  industry,  but  also  in 
the  spread  of  the  means  of  civilization  and  culture.  It 
is  a  system  which  will  depend  just  as  much,  of  course, 
as  the  traditional  systems  for  its  success  upon  a  sound 
knowledge  of  finance  and  markets  and  upon  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  results  of  modern  research  in 
the  physical  sciences.  With  these  factors  of  scientific 
management  we  are  not  directly  concerned.  But  scientific 
management,  if  it  is  to  live  up  to  its  high-sounding  name, 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND   LABOUR    99 

must  also  include  the  economic  regulation  and  control 
of  the  human  element  in  industry.  Yet  it  is  usually 
agreed  that  most  of  the  attempts  which  have  so  far  been 
made  to  introduce  scientific  management  into  industry 
have  been  characterized  by  an  insufficient  consideration 
of  this  important  factor  in  production.  Scientific  man- 
agement, in  short,  has  not  been  scientific  enough :  in 
fact,  it  has  been  neither  sound  science  nor  good  manage- 
ment. Our  justification  for  including  in  this  book  an 
account  of  scientific  management,  or  Taylorism,  as  it 
is  often  called,  is  that  in  it  we  have  in  clear  colour  and 
outline  an  admirable  picture  of  all  that  organized  labour 
fears.  And  since  the  relations  which  exist  between  those 
who  organize  industry  and  the  workers  who  serve  them 
demand  psychological  study,  we  may  very  well  choose 
the  scientific  management  movement  as  an  introductory 
study  ground  in  our  attempt  to  explore  these  relations. 
Recognizing  that  an  increasingly  greater  output  in  the 
necessaries  of  life  must  ultimately  be  for  the  benefit  of 
all,  and  that,  consequently,  the  scientific  mechanization 
and  speeding-up  of  industry  are  fundamentally  necessary 
and  natural  tendencies  of  our  time  which  it  is  futile  to 
oppose,  but  realizing  too,  that  after  all,  production  is 
as  much  for  the  sake  of  life,  as  life  for  the  sake  of  pro- 
duction, we  must  endeavour  to  keep  our  view  at  once 
clear,  steady  and  impartial.  We  must  realize,  moreover, 
that  the  continuous  mechanical  improvement  in  the 
methods  of  work  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  spirit  of  inven- 
tiveness and  initiative  (the  will-to-achieve)  on  the  other, 
are  things  of  which  we  cannot  have  too  much  ;  they  are 
the  indispensable  weft  and  warp  of  the  complex  fabric  of 
our  civilization.  Without  modern  large-scale  industry, 
that  is  to  say,  the  structure  of  present-day  culture  and 
civilization  would  fall  to  pieces. 

Yet  parallel  with  the  progress  in  the  replacement  of 
manual  power  and  local  trade  by  machinery  and  world- 
wide competitive  commerce  there  has  developed  a  spiritual 
revolt  among  the  manual  workers  against  the  conditions 


100    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

into  which  machine  progress  has  landed  them.  The  oppo- 
sition of  labour  to  these  tendencies  of  our  age  is  largely 
motived,  as  we  have  said,  by  fear  springing  primarily 
from  the  feeling  of  insecurity,  and  liable,  consequently, 
to  result  in  misunderstandings,  and  to  express  itself 
blindly,  as  often  as  not,  in  anger  and  revolt.  We  may 
in  one  sense  speak  of  the  existence  to-day  of  a  dissocia- 
tion of  the  "  social  rnind  "  which,  lacking  a  single  purpose 
approved  by  all,  has  split  through  conflict  into  two  parts, 
with  apparently  irreconcilable  aims.  Whereas  manage- 
ment is  concerned  principally  in  increasing  and  cheapening 
production,  labour  is  mostly  concerned  in  increasing  the 
welfare  of  those  who  actively  participate  in  it.  Obviously 
there  is  no  predestined  inescapable  conflict  between  these 
two  tendencies.  Yet  antagonism  seems  inevitable,  simply 
through  difference  in  habitual  outlook  of  employer  and 
employee.  All  the  elements  of  antagonism  between 
management  and  labour  have  seemed  in  the  past,  how- 
ever, to  crystallize  about  negotiable  matters  capable 
of  settlement ;  for  example,  about  the  division  of  the  - 
material  benefits  which  accrue  from  industry.  The  real 
opposition  of  labour  to  management  does  not  revolve 
about  the  value  of  the  present  industrial  system.  Even 
if  labour  were  given  sole  charge  of  industry  to-morrow, 
progress  could  only  be  maintained  by  an  increased  adopt- 
tion  of  scientific  methods  of  work.  Europe  has  recently 
afforded  us  an  example.  The  dictatorship  of  the  manual 
labourer  in  Russia  unsupported  by  the  technicians  and 
financiers  who  are  the  pivots  of  modern  trade  and  com- 
merce resulted  in  the  disorganization  of  production,  and 
Lenin  himself  has  admitted  his  error  in  dispensing  in  his 
revolution  with  the  aid  of  the  managerial  classes.  The 
industrial  conscription  introduced  by  the  Soviets,  partly 
to  make  good  this  error,  would  have  rejoiced  the  heart 
of  the  most  unregenerate  Taylorist.  It  is  interesting, 
therefore  to  learn  that  Lenin  has  himself  written  with 
great  appreciation  of  "  Taylorism  "  in  the  Moscow  press. 
It  would  seem  indisputable  to-day  that  those  nations. 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOUR    101 

which,  whether  democratic  or  autocratic  in  constitution, 
do  not  accept  to  the  full  the  implications  of  enlightened 
scientific  management  will  simply  be  offering  themselves 
as  an  economic  sacrifice  to  their  more  enterprising  neigh- 
bours. Instead,  therefore,  of  a  policy  of  blind  opposition 
to  every  new  device  of  scientific  production,  labour 
should  concentrate  on  the  policy  of  making  large-scale 
industry  the  instrument  not  only  of  material  prosperity, 
but  also  of  its  complete  enfranchisement  and  development. 

We  have  spoken  of  scientific  management  as  the 
organization  of  industry  in  the  interests  of  efficiency. 
Labour,  then,  must  see  that  in  this  meaning  human 
efficiency  is  included  as  well  as  efficiency  in  the  material 
and  mechanical  sense.  The  best  production  can  only 
exist  when  methods  are  employed  which  necessitate  the 
effective  employment  of  the  total  personality  of  the 
worker.  It  is  human  waste  and  a  confession  of  failure 
on  the  part  of  management  to  allow  any  part  of  the 
current  of  the  worker's  activity  to  run  idle  :  his  wonder- 
fully strong  and  delicate  mechanism  must  be  kept  in 
good  running  order ;  his  intelligent  interest  must  as 
far  as  possible  be  aroused  ;  the  springs  of  his  driving 
power,  the  passions,  must  be  stirred  into  activity  ;-  "and 
whatever  creative  and  artistic  abilities  he  possesses 
enlisted  in  his  work.  Of  these  powers  and  abilities  only 
the  first  can  be  commanded  to  any  extent ;  the  others 
when  they  exist  must  be  evoked  by  suitable  appeals. 

Labour's  policy  must  not,  therefore,  conflict  with  that 
of  wise  management  :  it  is  really  complementary  to  it. 
Each  has  something  valuable  to  contribute  to  the 
development  of  industry ;  each  without  the  other  is 
apt  to  run  into  blind  alleys,  but  each  with  the  other  is 
capable  of  infinite  invention  and  service.  There  is  a 
distinct  danger,  for  example,  of  the  engineer-employer 
who  thoroughly  understands  the  mechanics  of  production 
becoming  so  intent  upon  his  own  particular  science  as 
to  lose  sight  of  all  wider  interests  ;  just  as  there  is  a 
danger  of  the  well-intentioned  reformer  who  is  ignorant 


102     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

of  the  technical  aspects  of  industry  interfering  unwisely 
with  methods  of  production  through  misdirected  zeal. 
But  with  a  steady  growth  of  scientific  knowledge  and  a 
wise  nourishment  of  the  human  interests  of  the  workers 
we  ought  more  surely  to  move  forward  uninterruptedly 
to  whatever  goals  we  choose  to  seek. 

Since  the  term  "  Scientific  Management  "  has  only  quite 
recently  come  into  general  use,  it  may  be  useful  to  give 
an  account  of  its  origin.  Drury  in  his  account  of  the 
scientific  management  movement l  dates  the  use  of  the 
term  from  1910.  In  that  year  there  was  a  judicial 
inquiry  into  the  justice  of  the  proposal  on  the  part  of  some 
of  the  U.S.A.  railways  to  advance  their  rates.  One  of 
the  attorneys,  Justice  Brandeis,  took  the  offensive  against 
the  railway  magnates  in  suggesting  that  by  thought 
and  care  they  could  so  economize  in  their  working  costs 
as  to  render  the  new  rates  unnecessary.  To  the  plea 
that  the  rates  were  due  to  high  labour  charges,  he  said 
in  reply  that  there  was  a  system  of  economizing  in  labour 
charges  which  actually  depended  on  the  payment  of  a 
high  rate  of  wages.  '  This  system  which  meant  high 
wages  and  low  labour  cost  he  called  scientific  management."* 

We  have  already  spoken  in  some  detail  of  the  work  of 
Dr.  F.  W.  Taylor,  the  originator  of  scientific  manage- 
ment in  its  original  form,  in  connection  with  the  hand- 
ling of  pig-iron  at  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Works.  It  should 
be  understood  that  Taylor's  system,  often  called  Taylor- 
ism,  is  not  the  only  historical  form  of  scientific  manage- 
ment. Mr.  Harrington  Emerson,  for  example,  another 
American  engineer,  has  perfected  a  system  which  he 
calls  an  "  efficiency  system."  3 

In  differentiating  his  own  organization  from  older 
forms,  Taylor  called_the  traditional. system  the,  manage- 
ment of  initiative  ancTlncentive.  This  type  of  manage- 
ment was  based  on  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  worker 
possessed  the  skill  and  initiative  necessary  to  industry, 

1  H.  B.  Drury,  Scientific  Management ;   A  History  and  Criticism. 
*  Ibid.  3  See  The  Twelve  Principles  of  Efficiency. 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOUR     103 

and  that  management  must  provide  incentives  to  put 
them  into  operation.  Taylor  aimed  at  transferring  to 
management  the  knowledge  of  the  workers  and  at  deve- 
loping it  to  the  utmost.  Then  it  was  to  be  analysed  and  , 
handed  back  to  the  workers  in  piecemeal  fashion,  with 
the  consequence  that  no  worker  could  possibly  be  any 
longer  the  complete  master  of  a  craft. 

Taylor's  name  first  began  to  be  known  when  he  was 
working  as  a  foreman  in  the  early  eighties  of  last  century 
with  the  Midvale  Steel  Company  of  Philadelphia.  He 
was  struck  at  that  time  by  the  fact  that  the  management 
had  nothing  like  an  accurate  idea  of  a  man's  working 
capacity,  since  every  worker,  through  the  fear  of  his 
piece-rates  being  cut,  deliberately  concealed  all  indications 
of  the  exact  extent  of  his  powers.  Taylor  resolved  to 
discover  scientifically  what  work  a  man  could  reasonably 
be  expected  to  perform  in  various  occupations,  and 
having  satisfied  himself  that  his  calculations  were  correct, 
he  set  himself  to  secure  results  in  accordance  with  his 
own  carefully-worked-out  idea  of  a  good  day's  labour. 
His  achievement  in  getting  pig-iron  handled  at  the  rate 
of  47  tons  a  day  instead  of  the  customary  12  \  tons  a  day 
is  an  example  of  his  success  in  speeding  up  the  human 
machine  without  increasing  its  "  wear  and  tear."  A 
close  study  of  Taylor's  methods  will  reveal  his  remark- 
able understanding  of  certain  of  the  principles  of  human 
motivation.  It  is  open  to  question  whether  his  success 
was  such  as  to  make  it  worth  while  for  English  employers 
to  copy  his  methods. 

The  problem  facing  Taylor  was  to  get  the  labourer 
to  give  the  whole  of  his  energy  to  his  work.  His  solu- 
tion unfortunately  involved  the  atrophy  of  the  spon- 
taneity and  initiative  of  his  workmen.  The  philosophy 
underlying  his  methods  seems  to  have  been  that  the 
world  is  made  up  of  a  few  supermen  and  a  multitude  of 
creatures  intended  by  Providence  to  be  drudges. 

One  of  the  first  requirements  of  a  man  who  is  fit  to  handle  pig- 
iron  as  a  regular  occupation  (he  says)  is  that  he  shall  be  so  stupid 


104    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

and  so  phlegmatic  that  he  more  nearly  resembles  in  his  mental 
make-up  the  ox  than  any  other  type.1 

Taylor  found  a  man  named  Schmidt  who  answered  to 
this  description,  and  he  was  told  how  and  when  to  lift 
his  pig-iron,  how  and  when  to  carry  it,  the  rate  at  which 
he  must  move,  when  he  must  stop,  how  he  must  rest, 
and  so  on.  How  to  find  others  was  the  problem. 

It  is  happily  probable  that  the  type  of  labour  which 
directly  involves  the  brutalization  and  mechanization  of 
the  worker — and  pig-iron  loading  under  Taylor's  orders 
can  hardly  be  described  as  resulting  otherwise — will 
disappear  if  a  vigorous  scientific  offensive  is  set  up  against 
it.  In  the  case  of  stoking,  a  particularly  heavy  and 
only  semi-human  kind  of  work,  we  have  begun  to  solve 
the  problem  automatically  by  the  introduction  of  oil 
engines.2  Common  sense  approves  such  innovations. 

Taylor  mechanized  production  generally  ;  it  was  his 
declared  objective. 

All  possible  brain-work  (he  says)  3  should  be  removed  from  the 
(work)  shop  and  centred  in  the  planning  department,  leaving  for 
the  foremen  and  gang-bosses  work  strictly  executive  in  its  nature. 
.  .  .  Each  man  must  adapt  his  methods  to  the  many  new  standards, 
and  grow  accustomed  to  receiving  and  obeying  directions,  covering 
details,  large  and  small,  which  in  the  past  have  been  left  to  his 
judgment. 

Intelligent  interest  and  the  opportunity  of  expressing 
individual  self-expression  having  thus  been  eliminated 
from  the  life  of  the  workmen,  it  was  natural  that  Taylor, 

1  Principles  of  Scientific  Management. 

2  It  has  been  suggested  that  firemen  should  undertake  a  course 
of  instruction  in  the  art  of  stoking,  but  Mr.  Wall  work,  President 
of  the  Oldham  Branch  of  the  Engineers  and  Firemen,  when  ques- 
tioned recently  on  the  point,  said  it  was  the  general  belief  that,  no 
man   would   work   as  a  fireman   on   an    engine  unless   he  was  "  a 
slate  short."     "  Firemen,"  he  added,   "  are  generally  said  to  be 
strong  in  the  arm  and  weak  in  the  head." 

A  fireman,  was  his  conclusion,  did  not  feel  like  bothering  with 
any  education  after  he  had  finished  his  day's  work.  "  All  he  felt 
like  was  tumbling  into  bed."  3  Shop  Management. 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOUR     10$ 

who  rarely  seemed  to  reckon  upon  sentiment  as  a  factor 
worth  consideration,  should  have  aimed  at  securing 
adequate  motivation  almost  entirely  through  mechanical 
means,  as,  for  example,  by  an  adjustment  of  theL  wage- 
system.  The  piece-rate  system  which  at  first  had  been 
found  immensely  superior  to  the  day-rate  system  had 
ceased  to  result  in  increasing  efficiency  owing  to  the 
frequency  with  which  piece-rates  had  been  cut.  It  had 
been  discovered,  too,  that  the  purchasing  power  of  money 
tends  gradually  to  fall  as  earnings  rise. 

With  the  early  development  of  scientific  management 
there  are  associated  several  "  improved "  systems  of 
"  payment  for  labour/'  such  as  Towne's  "  Gain  Sharing  " 
system,1  which  made  an  appeal  to  the  co-operative  spirit 
in  the  workshop  by  a  distribution  of  the  savings  on 
the  cost  of  production  effected  by  the  labourers  them- 
selves, but  did  not  reward  individual  effort  in  proportion 
to  its  value ;  Halsey's  Premium  Plan*  an  ingenious 
adaptation  of  the  piece-rate  system  by  which  manage- 
ment always  got  more  out  of  increased  efficiency  than 
the  workers  responsible  for  it ;  the  Rowan  Plan,  first 
tried  in  Glasgow,  and  somewhat  similar  in  its  effects  to 
the  Halsey  Plan,  but  fairer  to  the  labourer  who  just 
exceeded  his  normal  output ;  and  the  Gantt  Bonus  System, 
of  which  more  will  be  said  later. 

Taylor's  wage  system  3  was  based  on  an  exact  time 
study  of  the  elementary  movements  involved  in  a  given 
task.  These  were  measured,  in  chosen  cases,  by  a  stop- 
watch :  a  percentage  was  added  for  unavoidable  delays, 
and  piece-rates  were  based  on  these  calculations.  The 
rate  was  fixed  at  such  a  figure  as  would  penalize  the  man 
who  did  not  put  forth  normal  effort,  but  reward  well 
those  who  exceeded  it.  A  low  rate  of  pay  was  accord- 
ingly fixed  until  the  output  was  considered  satisfactory. 
When  this  point  was  reached  a  higher  wage  was  paid, 
and  was  applied  retrospectively.  Such  elementary  time- 

1  Transactions  American  Mechanical  Society  of  Engineers,  vol.  x. 
*  Ibid.,  vol.  xii.  3  Ibid.,  vol.  xvi. 


106    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

study  as  Taylor  employed  was  held  fast  by  the  early 
advocates  of  scientific  management  as  the  key  to  the 
solution  of  the  wages  problem. 

The  attempt  to  stimjLUaJ^workers_iiit£L_full  activity 
\J  by  means  of  a  re-adjusted  wage  system  was. .characteristic 
of  "trie  first  stage  of  progress  in  the  scientific  management 
movemehtT"  Taylor  saw  clearly  that  the  possibility  of 
coupling  low  labour  cost  with  high  wages  depended  mainly 
in  utilizing  the  enormous  difference  between  the  amount 
of  work  which  a  first-class  man  can  perform  under  favour- 
able circumstances  and  that  which  is  actually  done  daily 
by  the  average  man.  In  so  far  as  Taylor  modified  his 
wage  system  it  was  to  bring  it  into  harmony  with  Gantt's 
bonus  system.  By  so  doing  he  improved  it  considerably. 

Henry  L.  Gantt,  said  to  be  the  strongest  man  in  the 
scientific  management  movement,  worked  with  Taylor 
at  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Works  from  1899  to  1901,  and 
during  that  period  introduced  his  Task  Work  with  a  Bonus 
System.  A  bonus  was  paid  to  every  man  who  completed 
his  task,  and  to  the  "  boss  "  there  was  given  in  addition 
a  small  sum  in  respect  of  each  of  his  men  who  was  thus 
successful.  The  boss  received,  moreover,  an  extra 
bonus  when  every  man  under  him  completed  his  task. 

Suppose  the  gang  boss  received  three  dollars  a  day,  and  had 
twenty  men  working  under  him,  he  would  be  paid,  say,  in  round 
numbers,  ten  cents  apiece  for  each  man  under  him  who  received 
his  bonus  ;  and  if  all  twenty  men  received  their  bonus,  he  would 
receive  a  double  bonus  of  twenty  cents  apiece  for  the  entire  gang. 

In  this  way  it  was  made  profitable  for  the  boss  to 
help  the  weaker  men.  The  system  was  also  more  popu- 
lar than  Taylor's  because  it  did  not  penalize  the  worker 
who  fell  behind  with  his  work. 

There  is,  however,  a  definite  limit  to  the  effectiveness 
of  any  such  wage  system  in  stimulating  production.  Not 
all  individuals  are  so  mentally  constituted  as  to  be  able 
to  do  their  best  work  under  piece-work  conditions.  Piece- 
work produces  in  some  workers,  who  are  of  slower  mental 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOUR     107 

reaction  and  more  highly  unstable  emotionally  than 
others,  a  nervous  tension  and  anxiety  which  impair  their 
efficiency  considerably. 

We  discovered  during  the  recent  world  war  what  was 
found  to  hold  when  the  Panama  Canal  was  being  con- 
structed, viz.  that  there  is  a  point  at  which  increases  in 
wages  cease  to  produce  increased  effort.  Further  efficiency 
must  be  sought  through  the  employment  of  other  than 
purely  mechanical  means.  Man  is  not  wholly  servile, 
materialistic,  and  responsibility-shirking,  so  that  the  best 
as  well  as  the  meanest  motives  can  be  made  a  successful 
ground  of  appeal.  Any  gang  of  workers  who  could, 
for  example,  kindle  among  themselves  the  unity,  interest, 
and  enthusiasm  of  a  private  theatrical  party  or  amateur 
football  club  could  easily  create  records  beside  which  the 
Taylor  and  Gilbreth  achievements  would  look  shrunken 
and  anaemic  indeed. 

A  real  and  fundamental  objection  which  may  be  urged 
against  rate-fixing  and  piece-work  is  seldom  heard.  It  is 
that  these  practices  unfairly  penalize  the  maturing  male 
worker  who,  just  as  he  finds  himself  in  need  of  an  increased 
income  to  provide  for  his  family's  requirements,  discovers 
often  that  production  has  become  so  mechanized  as  to 
leave  him  unable  to  compete  at  an  advantage  with 
quick-fingered  girls  and  boys.1  Thus  there  would  seem  to 
be  a  solid  basis  for  his  apprehension  that  he  may  be 
"  too  old  at  forty."  This  fear  should  be  taken  into 
consideration  and  should  be  negatived  by  the  formulation 
of  adequate  schemes  for  promotion. 

But  though  it  may  be  urged  by  the  workers  that  piece- 
work and  payment  by  result  systems  appeal  to  the  lowest 
motives  and  tend  to  break  down  labour  solidarity  by 
making  favouritism  and  selfishness  possible,  that  they 
lead  to  an  undignified  scramble  for  the  best  jobs  and  a 

1  "  In  some  branches  of  the  boot-finishing  trade  the  fact  that 
women  are  able  to  earn  higher  wages  than  the  men  so  aroused 
the  jealousy  of  the  men  that  they  had  to  be  separated  "  (Greer, 
Proc.  Econ.  Sci.  Sect.,  British  Association,  1919). 


108    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

cornering  of  special  tools,  it  cannot  be  maintained  that 
they  are  at  bottom  incompatible  with  trade  unionism. 
It  is  to  the  manner  of  their  imposition  in  many  cases 
rather  than  to  their  remediable  defects  that  the  real  labour 
objections  hold. 

In  one  psychological  respect  Taylor's  introduction  of 
standard  tasks  which  were  to  be  performed  in  a  carefully 
estimated  and  allotted  time  worked  well,  as  he  foresaw 
it  would.  When  the  worker  knows  exactly  what  he  is 
expected  to  do,  how  to  manage  it,  and  in  what  time  it 
ought  to  be  completed,  and  when,  moreover,  he  has  reason 
to  believe  that  he  will  be  able  to  perform  the  task  as 
many  others  have  already  done  without  undue  strain, 
there  is  a  freedom  from  anxiety  (which  accelerates  the 
approach  of  fatigue),  and  consequently  a  greater  con- 
centration of  effective  effort.  But  the  success  of  such 
a  system  depends  wholly  upon  the  fairness  of  the  rate- 
fixing,  and  thus  will  involve  an  analysis  both  of  the 
task  and  of  the  worker's  attitude  towards  it ;  and  we 
should  remember  in  this  latter  connection  that  the  worker 
is  legitimately  desirous  of  ensuring  not  only  a  good  wage 
but  a  reasonably  long  working  life  as  well. 

(It  will  be  observed  that  Taylor  omitted  to  take  into 
consideration  a  problem  which  every  social  student  must 
face,  that  of  unemployment  among  those  who  fail  to  come 
up  to  the  requirements  of  the  scientific  management 
expert.  One  cannot  continue  indefinitely  to  leave  the 
solution  of  this  problem  to  the  State  on  the  assumption 
that  the  organizers  of  industry  may  only  attend  to  the 
needs  of  the  workers  actually  in  their  employ.  As  long 
&s  this  assumption  is  held,  labour  will  be  justified  in 
believing  that  its  value  to  management  consists  in  its 
exploit  ability.) 

ADDENDUM 

A  typical  premium  bonus  scheme  of  the  present  day, 
aimed  at  making  good  the  defects  of  earlier  schemes, 
is  The  Priestman  Scheme,  initiated  a  few  years  ago  by 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOUR     109 

Messrs.  Priestman  Bros,  of  Hull.  We  take  the  following 
description  from  the  Journal  of  the  Industrial  League 
and  Council  (July,  1920)  : — 

The  scheme  appears  to  have  been  inaugurated  during  April, 
1917,  as  the  result  of  a  series  of  conferences  between  the  firm  and 
the  men,  and  approved  by  the  Engineering  Trade  Unions. 

The  Boilermakers  appear  to  have  held  aloof  from  the  scheme, 
and  were  paid  on  a  time-work  basis  of  time  and  a  half. 

A  standard  of  output  was  agreed  to  as  representing  the  normal 
achievement  of  the  work,  and  was  fixed  at  no  tons  per  calendar 
month.  The  standard  and  district  rate  was  guaranteed,  and  the 
percentage  bonus  for  increased  output  is  paid  on  that  basis. 

From  its  inception  the  output  of  the  works  increased,  and  on  an 
average  the  figures  equal  68-8  per  cent. 

In  some  months  98  per  cent,  has  been  made,  but  the  average  is 
round  about  an  increased  output  of  70  per  cent. 

The  system  is  described  as  applying  team-work  to  industry. 
The  standard  output  was  established  on  the  work  of  a  given  number 
of  men  during  the  year  1916,  and  was  arrived  at  by  the  manage- 
ment in  collaboration  with  a  Shops  Committee  upon  which  the  Trade 
Unions  were  represented. 

The  books  showing  the  daily  deliveries  are  open  to  the  inspection 
of  this  Committee,  and  monthly  returns  are  posted  up  in  the  works. 
The  output  in  this  way  is  calculated  month  by  month,  and  the 
increased  wage  is  applied  in  the  following  month.  It  appears  that 
the  percentage  of  increase  is  paid  on  a  weekly  basis,  and  every- 
body, from  the  lowest  paid  to  the  highest,  from  the  office  boy  to 
the  works  manager,  participates.  Thus,  if  in  April  the  output  is 
increased  by  50  per  cent,  over  the  standard,  during  May  the  boy 
whose  wage  is  £i  would  get  £i  los.  per  week,  and  the  Manager 
whose  salary  is  £10  per  week  would  receive  ^15. 

It  is  said  of  the  system  that  it  realizes  that  the  greatest  efficiency 
is  only  to  be  secured  by  the  willing  co-operation  of  every  person 
employed  in  an  establishment. 

It  has  discovered  that  the  draughtsman  and  the  typist,  the 
time-keeper  and  the  carman,  can  each  exercise  influence  upon  the 
efficiency  of  the  establishment,  its  smooth  running,  and  its  output. 
The  firm  is  an  engineering  establishment  which  produces  a  great 
variety  of  work,  ranging  from  the  heaviest  castings  to  the  smallest 
mechanisms. 

In  order  to  simplify  the  working  of  the  scheme,  tonnage  only  was 
taken  into  account,  and  the  percentage  bonus  earned  is  reckoned 
on  the  total  weight  of  finished  articles  produced. 


§  2.  TAYLORISM  :    LATER   PHASES 

The  secomLpfrase  of  the  early  scientific  management 
movement  was  characterized  by  an  attempt-to  standardize 
methods  and_ conditions  _Df.j^ork  :  wage  adjustment  had 
played  its  part  and  to  some  extent  had  been  found  wanting. 
Attention  was  accordingly  turned  in  fresh  directions  in 
search  of  the  means  of  increased  efficiency.  It  was 
discovered,  while  processes  were  being  timed,  that  the 
dissimilarities  in  the  machines  used,  and  in  the  ordinary 
working  conditions — of  atmosphere,  noise,  supply  of 
materials,  time  of  day,  etc. — were  responsible  for  great 
variations  in  results.  This  led  to  the  movement  for  the 
standardization  of  machines  and  their  parts,  of  tools  and 
equipment,  _of  methods  and  processes.  Such  standardiza- 
tion obviously  leads  to  a  much  greater  uniformity  of 
working  conditions  and  provides  a  basis,  in  the  possi- 
bility it  holds  out  of  applying  scientific  methods  of 
measurement,  for  making  working  conditions  as  perfect 
as  they  can  be  made.  To  ensure  standardization  in 
the  organization  of  industry  Taylor  introduced  the  fol- 
lowing features : — 

1.  Instru££ian~,£ards. — These   contained  directions  for  the   per- 
formance of  special  pieces  of  work,  indicating  what  tools  were  to 
be  used,  and  how  the  speed  at  which  the  machines  involved  were 
to  be  run,  etc.     There  was  considerable  trouble  caused  in   1911 
in  the  U.S.  Government  Arsenal  at  Rock  Island  through  the  in- 
troduction  of   the   instruction   card,    but   when   the   management 
stood  firm  and  the  system  was  given  a  trial,  opposition  disappeared. 
But  the  ground  of  opposition  was  changed  rather  than  removed 
altogether. 

2.  Route-wig. — We  have  already  spoken  of  route-ing,  meaning, 
by  the  term,  the  arrangement  of  the  work  to  be  done  in  such  a 

110 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOUR     111 

way  that  there  is  a  steady  stream  of  traffic  through  the  shops  in 
the  shape  of  manufactured  parts  and  articles  with  neither  con- 
gestion nor  slacking  off  anywhere,  and  so  that  each  job  goes  to 
the  man  or  machine  best  fitted  to  deal  with  it. 

3.  Motion  Study. — This  was  intended  to  provide  the  means  of 
standardizing  skill  and  habits  of  work  generally. 

4.  Selection  of  Workers. — Taylor  sought  to  select  his  workmen 
for  their  jobs  very  carefully,  knowing  that  not  all  men  have  the 
particular  aptitudes  demanded  in  a  particular  piece  of  work.' 

As  these  innovations  began  to  make  themselves  effec- 
tive it  became  necessary  to  modify  the  general  organiza- 
tion of  factory  management.  The  responsibilities  of  the 
foremen,  for  example,  grew  perceptibly  with  each  new 
method  introduced.  Any  one  ordinary  man  could  no 
longer  be  expected  to  possess  the  brains,  technical  know- 
ledge, energy,  tact,  organizing  ability  and  initiative  called 
for  by  the  reorganized  systems  of  workshop  control. 
Thus  a  thirdj>h.ase  in  the  development  of  scientific  man- 
agement was  rendered  imperative.  In  this  third  pfease 
we  find  the  principle  of  functional  management  introduced. 
Instead  of  there  being  a  single  foreman  in  each  workshop 
responsible  for  a  multitude  of  duties,  Taylor  introduced 
the  principle  of  one  man  one  function* 

The  older,  traditional  type  of  organization  man  has 
usually  called  military.  For  the  purpose  of  maintaining 
ceremonial  discipline  and  stereotyping  status  it  is  perhaps 
unrivalled,  but  because  it  involves  a  continuous  grading 
of  men  by  ranks  (each  with  its  own  particular  rate  of 
pay)  to  which  there  corresponds  no  scale  of  definitely 
graded  qualitatively  different  functions  to  be  performed, 
it  is  frequently  much  too  wasteful  of  human  ability. 
An  investigation  of  the  system  as  it  is  seen  in  working 
often  reveals  men  of  matured  experience  who  have  been 
promoted  because  there  were  vacancies  above  them  to 
be  filled  and  for  no  other  discoverable  reason,  performing 
nothing  but  the  red-tape  tasks  of  routine  supervision. 
A  cynic  might  well  say  that  in  the  cruder  varieties  of 

1  Shop  Management,  pp.  95—110. 
*  Applied  Motion  §tudy,  p.  22, 


112    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

this  type  of  organization  the  higher  you  rise  the  less  you 
do,  but  the  more  you  get  paid  for  your  idleness.  It  is 
widely  recognized  to-day  that  this  traditional  method 
of  organizing  men,  whether  in  government  office,  in 
church,  army,  political  party,  factory  or  business  house, 
is,  unless  seriously  modified,  thoroughly  unscientific, 
and  unworthy  of  a  cultured  age.  The  system  is  called 
military,  but  the  modern  army,  of  course,  is  no  longer 
organized  wholly  in  accordance  with  it  :  even  army 
organization  moves  with  the  times. 

The  division  of  authority  in  scientific  management  is 
in  accordance  with  functions.  In  the  first  place  there 
is  a  clear  division,  between  the  planning  and  performing 
functions.  In  the  planning  department  resides  the 
responsibility  for  arranging  what  is  to  be  done,  and  how  ; 
in  the  performing  department  lies  the  responsibility  for 
doing  it  according  to  instructions.  It  will  be  seen  that, 
theoretically,  the  individual  workman  may  receive  orders 
from  eight  possible  overseers,  but  practically,  it  is  claimed 
that  what  really  happens  is  that  he  receives  help  from 
eight  teachers,  whose  specific  duties  are  as  follows  : — 

1.  The  Route  Man  looks  after  the  traffic  of  the  work  through 
the  shops,   planning  its  route  in  advance,   and   arranging  which 
workmen  shall  handle  it  in  its  passage.     He  is  responsible  for  the 
disposition  of  the  plant  so  that  a  smooth  journey  is  ensured  for 
every  job  with  no  doubling  or  redoubling  of  the  path  of  its  progress. 
In  the  Ford  motor  shops,  for  example,  you  can  see  the  motor  car 
take  shape  and  grow  as  it  passes  on  along  its  route  from  one  set 
of  workers  to  the  next,  for  the  various  tributary  streams  of  effort 
flow  together,  and  the  whole  which  appears  first  in  a  skeleton  form 
is  gradually  elaborated  and  puts  on  body  stage  by  stage. 

2.  The   Instruction   Card  Man  has   to   work  out  in   detail   the 
method  of  least  waste  for  the  performance  of  any  task,  and  then 
state  clearly  the  steps  which  are  to  be  taken  by  the  worker  to  get 
it  done,  specifying  the  tools  and   machines   used  and  everything 
relevant  to  efficient  workmanship. 

3.  The  Time  and  Cost  Clerk  is  responsible  for  the    pay-sheets. 
He  calculates  the  cost  of  each  process  of  manufacture  and  compiles 
records  of  such  costs  which  serve  as  the  basis  of  new  estimates. 

4.  The  Disciplinarian  keeps  the  peace  in  the  factory,  arbitrating 
in   cases  of  dispute,  and  anticipating  wisely,   whenever  possible, 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOUR     113 

the  outbreak  of  dissatisfaction.  Any  worker  with  a  grievance 
may  appeal  to  him  and  be  assured,  theoretically  at  least,  of 
sympathetic  attention. 

5.  The  Gang  Boss  is  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  seeing  that  the 
men  know  how  to  comply  with  the  instructions  issued  from  the 
planning  department.     It  is  he  who  is  the  pivot  in  the  operation 
of  the  Gantt  bonus  system.     It  is  possible  for  a  good  gang  boss 
to  diffuse  a  healthy  spirit  of  co-operation  among  his  men,   and 
exercise  an  influence  for  good,  too,  through  his  teaching  function. 
It  marks  a  distinct  step  forward  in  the  psychological  management 
of  industry  for  Taylor  to  have  devised  a  method  which  makes  it 
worth  while  for  a  foreman  to  teach  his  workmen.     (Readers  will 
remember  that  by  the  Gantt  system  the  Gang  Boss  receives  a 
bonus   for  each  workman  who  completes  his  task  satisfactorily, 
and  a  double  bonus  if  all  are  successful.) 

6.  The  Speed  Boss  does  not  so  much  speed  up  the  men,  as  might 
be  suspected,  as  to  see  that  the  machines  move  at  the  standard  rate. 
The  best  speed  for  a  particular  job  is  not  necessarily  the  fastest 
speed  ;  danger  in  so  far  as  it  is  a  factor  to  be  considered  may  arise 
equally  from  excessive  speed  as  from  a  speed  which  is  too  slow 
for  the  type  of  work  in  hand.     Occasionally  he  will  be  called  upon 
to  demonstrate  the  possibility  of  performing  a  task  at  the  standard 
rate. 

7.  The  Repair  Boss  keeps  the  machines  in  good  running  order 
and  overhauls  them  when  necessary  and  possible. 

8.  The  Inspector,  by  carefully  watching  new  workers  and  new 
processes,  ensures  the  correct  handling  of  the  task  to  be  performed. 
He  acts  in  an  advisory  capacity  at  such  times,  and  he  is  urged 
to  be  constructive  rather  than  destructive  in  his  criticisms. 

What  has  been  the  worker's  reaction  to  these  innova- 
tions ? 

As  to  whether  a  man  is  worse  off  under  eight  such 
bosses  as  these  than  he  was  under  one  will  depend  on 
his  individual  temperament  and  upon  the  way  the 
system  works  out  in  practice.  It  is  probably  a  great 
effort  for  some  persons  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  more 
complex  and  varied  supervision  of  the  scientific  manage- 
ment system  :  it  is  easier,  that  is,  for  such  workers  to 
get  used  to  the  presence  of  one  responsible  personality 
than  to  that  of  several.  To  this  type  of  worker  the 
leaders  of  the  movement  say,  "  It  is  not  that  we  provide 
eight  masters  for  you,  but  rather  eight  teachers  and 

8 


114    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

helpers  :  your  work  is  standardized  and  perfectly  definite, 
so  that  you  have  the  advantage  of  knowing  exactly  how 
far  they  are  justified  in  interfering  with  you  ;  moreover, 
in  the  disciplinarian  you  have  a  referee  to  whom  you  can 
appeal  when  the  occasion  calls  for  it."  It  would  seem, 
therefore,  to  some  that  there  can  be  no  rational  objec- 
tion to  this  feature  of  the  new  management.  But  other 
views  have  been  expressed.  Thus  one  employer  has 
said  :  "  It  is  quite  impossible  to  replace  the  influence 
of  the  one  foreman  with  his  personal  hold  over  his  men 
by  any  galaxy  of  experts."  Mr.  EL  L.  Gantt  has  also 
declared  that  the  separation  of  the  work  of  instruction 
from  that  of  inspection  has  been  a  failure. 

Drury  x  thinks,  however,  that  it  is  only  by  means  of 
functional  organization  that  originative  force  can  be  given 
free  play.  Most  of  the  potential  originality  of  subordinates 
fails  to  come  to  the  surface  under  prevailing  types  of 
management  because  it  must  first  pass  through  the  con- 
sciousness of  an  over-responsible  executive.  At  any 
rate,  it  cannot  be  said  that  we  have  got  beyond  the 
stage  of  a  priori  argument  on  this  point.  We  may, 
perhaps,  close  this  section  with  the  weighty  opinion  of 
Mr.  Henry  L.  Gantt  on  some  of  the  more  general  points 
we  have  discussed.2  "It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the 
'  efficiency  methods  '  which  have  been  so  much  in  vogue 
for  the  past  twenty  years  in  this  country  (America)  have 
failed  to  produce  what  was  expected  of  them.  The 
reason  seems  to  be  that  we  have  to  a  large  extent  ignored 
the  human  factor  and  failed  to  take  advantage  of  the 
ability  and  desire  of  the  ordinary  man  to  learn  and 
to  improve  his  position.  Moreover,  these  'efficiency 
methods  have  been  applied  in  a  manner  that  was  highly 
autocratic.  This  alone  would  be  sufficient  to  condemn 
them,  even  if  they  had  been  highly  effective  '  which  they 
have  not." 

1  Op.  dt. 

2  Organizing  for  Work,  pp.  89-90. 


§   3-    THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  REPETITION  WORK 

We  have  seen  that  the  work  of  men  like  Gilbreth,  a 
typical  representative  of  American  scientific  manage- 
ment, has  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  following 
principles  of  work : — 

1.  There    must   be   an  exact   study   of    industrial 
processes   so   that   every   movement   of   the   worker 
is  rendered  susceptible  of  measurement. 

2.  There    must   be  an  abolition  of  all  movements 
not  essential  to  efficiency,  e.g.  those  of    the  brick- 
layer in  raising  and   lowering  his   body  in  getting 
mortar  and  bricks  from  the  ground  where  they  need 
not  be. 

3.  There  must  be    a    reduction  to  a  minimum  of 
all  such  acts  of  attention  and  decision  as  interfere 
with    speed,   e.g.    hunting  for  the  appropriate  tool 
or  part  when  assembling  a  machine. 

4.  There  must  be  a  teaching  of  movements  superior 
in  skill  to  the  traditional  ones  which  they  will  sub- 
stitute,   e.g.    the  simultaneous  employment  of   both 
hands  in   bricklaying  and  typewriting,   in   place  of 
the  successive  use  of  separate  hands  or  the  exclusive 
use  of  a  single  hand  (or  finger). 

These  principles  have  through  their  application  raised 
many  interesting  psychological  questions.  Gilbreth 
deserves  the  warm  thanks  of  all  men  interested  in  econo- 
mizing human  energy  for  his  incomparable  pioneer  work. 
The  psychologist  is  especially  indebted  to  him  for  having 
elaborated  a  method  of  studying  in  a  concrete  objective 

115 


116    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

form  the  actual  working  of  the  mind  in  a  learning  process. 
One  can  see  the  quality  of  a  man's  skill  in  the  wire  motion- 
models  which  are  constructed  from  the  stereochronocycle- 
graph,  obtained  from  photographing  and  timing  given 
movements  in  three  dimensions.1 

Gilbreth,  however,  has  made  himself  the  target  for 
the  criticisms  of  those  who  see  nothing  but  evil  in  our 
industrial  system.  If  the  bricklaying  technique  which 
he  displaced  has  been  in  use  for  centuries,  they  would 
say,  it  is  because  it  suits  man  ;  whereas  it  has  been 
abundantly  proved  that  large-scale  modern  industry  is 
entirely  unsuited  to  his  nature.  Let  Dean  Inge  speak 
for  this  type  of  critic : — 

The  human  race  has  been  for  thousands  of  years  a  race  of  tillers 
of  the  soil,  of  hunters  and  of  fighters.  These  are  the  occupations 
for  which  we  are  adapted,  and  we  are  not  acclimatized  to  any 
other.  .  .  .  Farmers,  gardeners,  and  shepherds  have  the  happine'ss 
of  perfect  health  in  a  life  which  suits  the  natural  constitution  of 
man  .  .  .  the  factory  hand  dislikes  his  work,  and  dislikes  it  in 
proportion  as  he  is  subjected  to  the  extreme  specialization  and 
machine-like  motions  of  up-to-date  machinery.  It  looks  as  if  the 
whole  of  our  industrialism  was  based  upon  a  mistake.3 

Continuous  repetition  work,  he  would  probably  say, 
is  as  injurious  to  the  mind  as  exposure  to  excessive 
glare  in  glass-bottle  finishing,  or  to  anilin  oil  or  T.N.T. 
in  shell-filling  is  to  the  body. 

Some  opponents  of  repetition-process  work  urge  that 
in  the  interests  of  physical  growth  alone  it  should  be 
condemned,  that  occupations  which  call  for  the  use  of 
no  more  than  a  few  selected  muscles  of  the  body,  so 
depriving  in  many  cases  the  fundamental  muscles — e.g., 
the  Gilbrethian  bricklayer's  abdominal  muscles — of  their 
natural  exercise  should  themselves  be  eliminated.  A  man 
who  is  continually  using  but  one  set  of  muscles  grows  so 
that  eventually  he  can  use  no  others.  We  cannot,  however, 
fly  in  the  face  of  the  great  drive  of  modern  industry 

1  See  pp.  61-62. 

*  From  a  sermon,  November  23,   1919. 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND   LABOUR     117 

toward  the  specialization  of  function  and  the  speeding-up 
of  production.  The  remedy  to  be  found  for  its  disadvan- 
tages will  not  lie  in  the  abolition  of  specialization  but  in 
a  diminution  of  the  hours  of  labour,  in  thorough  ventilation 
and  cleanliness  of  working  conditions,  in  alternative  exer- 
cise and  in  adult  education. 

The  more  serious  charge  brought  against  scientific 
management  in  industry  is  that  it  is  gradually  resulting 
in  a  complete  separation  of  the  manual  worker  from  the 
brain  worker,  and  that  the  latter  is  steadily  monopo- 
lizing to  himself  the  interest — and  it  is  ever  increasing — 
which  is  wrapped  up  in  industry,  thus  leaving  to  the 
former  nothing  but  monotonous  toil.  The  change  is 
powerfully  urged,  and  the  modern  psychologist  who  has 
intervened  in  the  conflict  of  argument  consequent  upon 
its  discussion  has  not  yet  taken  an  independent  attitude. 
The  tendency  of  many  writers  is  to  follow  the  American 
psychologist,  Miinsterberg,1  who  wrote  a  few  ill-advised 
paragraphs  on  the  subject  some  years  ago. 

The  business  of  the  industrial  psychologist  is,  among 
other  things,  to  discover  the  best  mental  and  physical 
conditions  for  the  production  of  the  best  possible  work. 
Miinsterberg  argues  as  though  these  already  exist  in  large- 
scale  industry.  He  implies  that  the  monotony  of  factory 
operations  exists  only  in  the  imaginations  of  outside 
observers  who  seeing  or  hearing  that  workers  perform 
certain  mechanical  movements  thousands  of  times  a  day, 
year  after  year,  think  that  there  is  a  similar  unvaried 
mechanisation  of  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  workers 
themselves.  He  quotes  the  case  of  a  workman  whom 
he  found  pushing  strips  of  rnetal  forward  into  a  hole- 
cutting  machine  and  making  34,000  uniform  movements 
daily.  This  the  man  had  been  doing  for  fourteen  years. 
Miinsterberg  also  found  a  girl  who  wrapped  up  electric 
lamps  in  soft  paper  at  the  rate  of  25  in  42  seconds, 
day  in  and  day  out.  Both  workers  confessed  to  ex- 
periencing the  greatest  pleasure  in  their  task:  they 
1  Psychology  and  Industrial  Efficiency* 


118    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

found  it  interesting  and   stimulating  and    seemed  quite 
intelligent  ! 

Miinsterberg,  however,  gives  away  his  case.  In  follow- 
ing up  his  argument  that  "  age  cannot  wither  nor  custom 
stale  "  the  infinite  variety  of  the  endless  repetition  of 
mechanical  movements  of  a  circumscribed  pattern,  he 
says  that,  of  course,  all  depends  upon  the  individuals  as 
to  what  they  find  monotonous.  Indeed  it  does.  Can 
we  imagine  a  Newton  or  a  Shakespeare  content  to  wrap 
lamps  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  in  forty-two  seconds 
for  the  duration  of  their  mortal  life  ?  And  can  we  as 
a  nation  face  with  equanimity  the  steady  increase  in  the 
number  of  workers  whose  mental  outlook  is  so  narrow 
that  they  are  content  to  be  riveted  for  life  to  a  single 
unvarying  task  ?  A  certain  amount  of  routine  work  is 
good.  The  mental  discipline  ot  such  efforts  is  probably 
quite  as  essential  to  a  well-balanced  personality  as,  say, 
a  rhythmic  system  of  physical  exercises  is  to  a  healthy 
body.  "  But  to  say  that  the  chief  pre-occupation  of 
the  day  should  be  to  touch  one's  toes  the  maximum 
number  of  times  in  return  for  the  means  to  purchase 
the  heat  units  required  for  the  performance  of  the  same 
ritual  on  the  following  day,"  as  one  writer  l  has  put 
it,  is  to  show  an  amazing  ignorance  of  the  "  limits  " 
of  human  nature.  Looking  at  the  matter  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  abnormal  psychologist,  we  shall  find 
that,  though  seen  in  a  slightly  different  perspective,  the 
general  mental  aftects  of  an  excessive  specialization  are 
much  the  same  in  reality.  The  normal  human  being 
passes  through  several  stages  of  development,  moving 
on  from  one  level  of  social  adjustment  to  a  higher  one, 
and  thus  acquiring  increasing  skill  and  satisfaction  in  his 
adaptations.  If  the  intelligence  is  such  that  it  cannot 
rise  above  a  low  level  of  imitation  into  the  higher  spheres 
of  invention,  then  no  pathological  result  will  ensue  by 
closing  the  channel  which  leads  from  one  to  the  other ; 
but  if  the  tide  of  life  in  full  vigour  and  flow  cannot 
1  A.  R.  Orage  in  The  New  Age, 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOUR     119 

continue  to  rise  and  make  progress,  then  the  impeded 
stream  must  either  find  new  channels  of  passage  —  in 
religion  or  politics,  in  hobbies  or  in  research,  for  example, 
and  these  will  necessitate  a  considerable  development  of 
intelligence  which  the  routine  worker  rarely  possesses — or 
the  flood  burst  its  banks. 

One  of  the  great  factors  in  the  winning  of  the  war  was 
the  ready  adaptation  of  the  human  mind  on  the  part 
of  the  Allies  to  the  emergencies  which  had  continually 
to  be  faced.  Intelligence  is  essentially  "  a  general 
capacity  of  an  individual  to  adjust  his  thinking  to  new 
requirements  :  it  is  general  mental  adaptability  to  new 
problems  and  conditions  of  life."  *  Such  a  capacity 
needs  exercise,  and  the  argument  which  Mlinsterberg 
does  not  fairly  meet  is  that  by  consenting  to  man  being 
permanently  employed  as  the  mere  servant  of  a  machine 
instead  of  as  its  master,  we  are  really  depriving  him  of 
the  chance  of  developing  his  intelligence. 

Let  us  state  the  case  as  a  dilemma.  The  psychological 
dilemma  concerning  the  monotony  of  repetition-process 
work  is  this  :  either  the  worker  employs  all  his  powers 
on  the  task,  in  which  case  there  is  established  an  un- 
desirable limitation  and  stereotyping  of  mental  process  so 
that  the  movements  of  his  mind  tend  to  become  unduly 
circumscribed  and  uniform,  and  this  is  bad  for  the  worker  ; 
or  the  mechanical  processes  tend  to  be  carried  on  auto- 
matically while  the  conscious  attention  is  given  to  other 
things,  which  means  that  only  a  small  portion  of  the 
worker's  energy  is  given  to  the  work,  and  this  is  frequently 
bad  for  his  employer. 

We  have  already  said  that  it  is  desirable  for  the  sake 
of  civilization  that  industry  should  be  made  interesting, 
so  that  any  solution  of  our  difficulty  which  involves  a 
complete  focusing  of  the  interests  of  workers  outside  in- 
dustry is  no  solution  at  all.  You  cannot  abolish  machinery 
or  the  repetition-process.  Can  anything  be  done  to 
make  them  more  interesting  ?  Can  we  rearrange  work 
1  Stern,  Psychological  Methods  of  Testing  Intelligence. 


120    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

in  such  a  way  that  our  factories  will  become  filled  with 
workers  whose  skill  is  not  mere  routine  skill,  but  intelligent 
scientific  skill,  productive  of  inventiveness  and  pleasure  ? 
Certainly  we  cannot  remain  happy  with  the  present  posi- 
tion, because  there  is  a  growing  number  of  people  who 
actually  like  unvaried  monotony  and  fear  every  sugges- 
tion of  change  ;  and  the  psychologist  who  specializes  in 
abnormal  mental  phenomena  tells  us  quite  plainly  that 
such  a  condition  of  mind  is  not  healthy.  (To  be  impatient 
of  every  bond  of  custom  and  regularity  is,  of  course, 
equally  the  sign  of  a  morbid  temperament.) 

In  the  interests  of  increased  production,  processes  must 
be  standardized,  but  minds  must  be  freed.  It  is  for  the 
good  of  both  employers  and  employed,  and,  moreover, 
it  is  a  national  necessity  that  the  factory  worker  should 
be  given  greater  opportunities  of  varying  his  work.  It 
has  been  abundantly  proved  during  the  recent  war  that 
many  of  the  processes  of  industry,  which  in  the  past 
have  been  regarded  as  needing  highly-skilled  attention, 
can  be  quickly  learnt  by  intelligent  workers.  Many  are 
now  convinced  that  as  wide  an  acquaintance  as  can 
practically  be  secured  with  several  processes  of  manufac- 
ture and  their  raison  d'etre  will  give  the  workers  a  better 
insight  into  their  particular  branch  of  work,  interest 
them  more  deeply  in  the  problems  of  efficiency  and  out- 
put, and  so  call  out  the  higher  mental  qualities  they 
possess.  And  the  resulting  greater  variety  in  their  work 
would  make  factory  life  more  endurable. 

The  practical  difficulty  is  that  where  piece-rates  are 
fixed  the  worker  finds  that  he  can  eam  more  by  staying 
on  the  monotonous  job  than  by  changing  over  to  another. 
His  reaction,  if  he  is  a  very  intelligent  worker,  is  then 
apt  to  be  that  of  a  thwarted  creature. 

Workers  are  in  large  numbers  trying  out  a  solution 
themselves,  if  we  interpret  the  facts  of  the  "  labour- 
turnover  "  problem  correctly.  Investigation  has  been 
made  into  the  causes  of  the  moving  about  of  large  armies 
of  workers  from  one  factory  to  another ;  it  showed  in 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND   LABOUR     121 

one  case  that  out  of  10,434  people  who  left  a  munition 
factory  during  a  period  of  six  months,  only  992,  or  less 
then  10  per  cent.,  could  be  accounted  for.  Now,  the 
pioneer  firms  have  found  that  the  continual  replacement 
of  workers  is  most  wasteful,  and  that  the  opportunities 
offered  for  a  change  of  work  in  the  same  factory  are  de- 
cidedly effective  in  checking  this  turnover,  causing  a 
retention  of  many  men  and  women  who  would  otherwise 
leave.  More  inefficiency  than  is  realized  is  caused  through 
the  time  spent  by  probationary  workers  in  getting  used 
to  the  habits  of  the  new  firms  they  join.  One  investigator 
has  calculated  that  every  worker  who  leaves  and  needs 
replacement  costs  the  employer  from  £15  to  £20.  This 
wastage  which  occurs  largely  through  the  non-utilization 
of  general  interest  in  the  purpose  of  industry  is  illustrated 
by  the  story  of  a  girl  who  had  worked  for  many  years 
in  a  factory  and  heard  after  leaving  that  some  people 
were  to  be  taken  on  a  visit  to  it.  She  pleaded  to  go 
on  the  ground  that  she  had  worked  for  her  whole  working 
life  in  one  confined  corner  of  it,  and  often  wondered  what 
happened  elsewhere.  In  a  good  factory  the  new-comer 
will  be  given  at  the  outset  a  general  grasp  of  the  aim  of 
the  management,  and  will  realize  both  what  the  signifi- 
cance of  his  own  task  is  and  what  possibilities  lie  ahead 
of  him. 

Closely  connected  with  the  problem  of  monotony  in 
modern  industrial  life  is  the  problem  of  speed.  As 
instances  of  modern  speed  let  us  take  the  following.  Some 
kinds  of  motor  sewing  machines  carry  twelve  needles, 
while  others  set  4,000  stitches  a  minute.  The  operator 
cannot  relax  her  attention  for  a  second  lest  through  the 
breaking  off  of  a  thread  the  whole  process  be  stopped. 
During  the  busy  parts  of  the  day  girls  operating  in  tele- 
phone exchanges  need  to  move  their  arms  as  many  times 
as  120  times  a  minute,  and  deal  with  numbers  at  a  great 
speed.  In  the  textile  industry  women  are  to-day  tending 
an  increasing  number  of  looms.  Whereas  weavers  used 
to  look  after  six  Draper  looms,  they  now  tend  from 


122     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

twelve  to  sixteen,  an  occupation  which  demands  con- 
tinuous and  widely  directed  attention.  Spinners  will 
tend  to-day  as  many  as  a  thousand  spindles.  The 
fatigue  due  to  the  growing  speed  and  complexity  of 
modern  industry  is  therefore  apparently  becoming  greater 
than  ever.  Yet  it  is  a  Mrs.  Partington  policy  to  oppose 
unconditionally  the  speeding-up  of  industry.  The  world 
is  crying  out  for  production  of  food,  clothing  and 
shelter,  and  will  continue  to  cry  out  for  them  for  a  long 
time  to  come. 

Now,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  industry  is  speeding 
up  the  mentality  not  only  of  factory  workers,  but  of  the 
whole  civilized  world,  and  to  an  unsuspected  degree  : 
and  this  is  not  wholly  an  evil.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
large  industrial  centres  of  the  world  are,  in  the  process, 
becoming  more  and  more  alike,  taking  their  mental  tempo 
from  their  pace-setters,  who  are  thus  to-day  tending  to 
become  the  real  leaders  of  the  human  race.  As  to  where 
they  are  leading  the  human  race  is  another  matter.  But 
there  is  far  less  difference  in  mental  outlook  between  the 
factory  worker  as  New  Yorker,  Londoner,  or  Parisian  to-day 
than  there  was  a  century  ago.  Climatic  conditions  which 
vary  greatly  will  continue  to  play  their  part  upon  mentality  : 
the  Southern  European  will  always  react  to  impressions 
with  greater  speed  of  emotional  response  than  the  Northern 
European.  A  clear  indication  of  the  fact  that  there  is 
nevertheless  occurring  a  general  standardization  of  mental 
tempo  among  civilized  people  is,  we  think,  to  be  observed 
in  the  gradual  acceptance  everywhere  of  the  same  games 
and  amusements.  Formerly  each  nation  had  the  games 
and  pleasures  which  suited  the  natural  rhythm  of  its 
general  mental  life.  Now  cricket  (speeded  up  consider- 
ably in  the  past  twenty  years),  football,  baseball,  lacrosse, 
tennis,  dancing,  etc.,  are  being  cultivated  everywhere. 
Those  national  traditions  and  culture  which  oppose  this 
movement  are,  in  times  of  peace,  seldom  able  to  compete 
with  the  influence  of  a  common  mode  of  life  and  work, 
and  of  common  games  and  amusements  in  moulding  the 


SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT   AND   LABOUR     123 

character  and  intelligence  of  a  vast  majority  of  the  people 
of  any  country.  It  is,  therefore,  beyond  doubt  that  if 
the  separatist  forms  of  historic  nationalism  should  come  to 
count — except  in  times  of  war — for  less  and  less  among 
the  submerged  masses,  then  the  supremacy  of  the  future 
will  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  people  who,  while 
preserving  a  mind  accessible  to  new  ideas,  can  get  a 
"  move  on."  At  the  moment  these  characteristics  seem 
predominantly  American,  and  it  is  this  fact  which 
renders  America  so  formidable  a  competitor  to  the  rest 
of  the  world.1 

The  reader  will  have  noted  and  approved  Gilbreth's 
attempts  to  cut  out  the  necessity  for  constant  acts  of 
decision  on  the  part  of  the  workers.  Disorder  and  lack 
of  method  means  that  tools  and  material  are  left  where 
they  happen  to  be  dropped,  so  that  when  they  are  needed 
it  involves  worry  and  interruption  to  find  them,  whereas 
it  saves  energy  and  anxiety  when  we  know  where  to 
look  for  things.  No  one  can  object  to  a  change  which 
renders  unnecessary  constant  decisions  about  small 
things  :  if  increased  monotony  here  is  the  result  we 
shall  not  mind.  It  is  obviously  a  human  saving  if,  for 
example,  telegraphic  messages  are  automatically  recorded 
instead  of  it  being  necessary  for  the  post-office  servant 
to  leave  her  immediate  task  every  time  a  message  comes 
through.  (Many  of  us  would  like  to  see  an  invention  of 
a  method  by  which  telephone  messages  could  be  recorded 
and  reproduced  by  means  of  a  dictaphone  at  the  convenience 
of  the  receiver.)  We  shall  probably  see  the  introduction, 
too,  in  increasing  numbers  of  mechanical  or  electric  bells 
and  buzzers  which  will  if  necessary  give  the  signal  at  an 
appropriate  time  to  the  machine  operator  that  attention 
will  soon  be  necessary  at  some  important  point  in  a  pro- 

1  Since  there  can  be  no  deeply-founded  internationalism  other 
than  that  which  has  its  roots  in  nationalism,  these  facts  point  to 
the  desirability  of  raising  the  mass  of  the  people  to  that  level  where 
the  best  cultural  traditions  of  their  community  can  effectively 
operate  and  humanize  them. 


124     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

cess,  that  a  part  is  about  to  break,  or  a  supply  of  some 
material  to  fall  short.  The  fatigue  due  to  constant  ex- 
pectation of  the  call  of  duty  is  great,  but  it  may  in  this 
way  be  diminished.  One  might  quote  the  case  of  the 
automatic  fire  extinguisher  and  alarm  used  in  many 
factories.  The  heat  of  the  fire  dissolves  a  plug,  which 
lets  out  water,  and  the  flow  of  the  water  in  the  pipe  works 
a  motor  which  rings  an  alarm. 

Gilbreth's  attempt  to  teach  combined  movements  as 
substitutes  for  a  large  number  of  separate  ones  are  also 
deserving  of  great  praise.  On  this  point  Muscio  l  is  very 
helpful.  He  writes  : — 

The  innervation  of  any  one  muscle  or  group  of  muscles 
normally  involves  some  innervation  of  other  muscles  or  groups  of 
muscles  situated  near  it.  Consequently,  if  immediately  after 
innervating  one  particular  muscle  we  desire  to  innervate  another 
near  it,  the  innervation  of  the  second  will  not  involve  the  trans- 
mission of  so  large  an  amount  of  nervous  impulse  as  if  the  first 
muscle  has  not  been  innervated.  The  importance  of  this  for 
industry  may  be  illustrated  by  reference  to  methods  of  typewriting. 
It  allows  us  to  understand  how  the  use  of  all  the  fingers  in  type- 
writing is  not  only  a  rapid  method  of  operating,  but  little,  if  any, 
more  fatiguing  than  the  "  one  finger  "  method  ;  for  by  using  one 
finger  only  the  overflow  impulses  to  the  neighbouring  finger  muscles 
— involved  in  every  innervation  of  the  muscle  of  that  one  finger — 
are  simply  wasted,  whereas  in  the  "  all-fingers  "  method  they  are 
utilized. 

No  man  would  dream  of  arguing  that  the  typist  who 
practises  the  "  all-fingers  "  method  and  writes  forty 
words  a  minute  is  more  fatigued  by  her  task  than  another 
who  in  a  minute  by  the  "  one-finger  "  method  knocks 
out  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  words.  In  a  similar 
manner  Muscio  shows  theoretically  that  it  is  economical 
to  use  simultaneously  rather  than  successively  both  hands 
whenever  possible,  as  the  Gilbreth  bricklayers  did. 

Still   it   is   obvious   that   the    future   of  industry   and 
of  civilization  depends  upon  a  well-organized  attempt  to 
defeat   the  influence   of  unvaried   repetition  work   amid 
*  Op.  tit.,  p.  91, 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND   LABOUR     125 

noise  and  machinery  in  deadening  the  mental  life  of  the 
factory  worker.  The  most  appropriate  manner,  after 
all,  of  saving  human  energy  will  be  through  the  better 
education  of  the  people.  An  educated  worker  makes 
more  methodical  and  speedy  progress  than  an  uneducated 
worker,  and  he  is  apt  to  retain  a  greater  interest  in  his 
work  once  it  is  aroused.  Moreover,  he  is  often  in  posses- 
sion of  those  habits  of  feeling  and  thought  and  ideals 
which  will  be  most  effective  in  preventing  the  onset  of 
more  subtle  forms  of  fatigue.  There  is  consequently 
less  "  self-compulsion  "  in  the  attack  upon  his  work,  and 
so  less  probability  of  neurasthenia  setting  in.  We  think 
Gilbreth  would  finally  agree  that  industrial  harmony 
will  never  become  permanently  established  till  every 
worker  is  given  a  scientific  as  well  as  a  practical  insight 
into  the  nature  of  his  work,  and  an  opportunity  of 
employing  his  inventive  powers. 

There  are  many  medical  men  who  believe  that  industrial 
unrest  is  in  part  directly  traceable  to  the  monotony  of 
modern  factory  life.  They  would  explain  such  unrest 
psychologically  as  expressive  of  a  defence-mechanism 
which  has  been  set  up  by  human  nature  for  its  own  pro- 
tection against  the  greater  evil  which  it  half-consciously 
fears,  the  loss  of  virility,  that  passing  of  the  joie  de  vivre, 
which  would  result  from  too  complete  an  acceptance  of 
the  present  system.  A  writer  in  The  Times  *  whom  we 
have  already  once  quoted,  puts  this  point  of  view  quite 
clearly : — 

The  human  organism  is  so  constructed  that  it  will  always  react 
against  circumstances  which  are  inimical  to  its  well-being.  Were 
this  not  so  life  would  be  impossible  for  any  length  of  time.  Mono- 
tony in  occupation,  so  long  as  the  subject  is  healthy  and  has  not 
been  broken  in  a  nervous  sense,  arouses  by  an  inevitable  process 
of  physiology  the  demand  for  sharp  stimulation  at  other  move- 
ments. The  mechanical  process,  the  ever-revolving  wheel,  the  often- 
repeated  movement,  breed  surely  a  demand  for  excitement  which 
is  well-nigh  insatiable.  The  more  mechanical  the  task,  the  more 
urgent  the  necessity  of  an  antidote  to  it. 

1  Trade  Supplement,  April  24,   1920. 


126    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

Such  antidotes  will  usually  take  one  of  two  forms, 
either  active  or  passive  :  the  form  of  gambling,  drunken- 
ness, and  vice,  so  detested  by  all  those  who  see  them 
as  fundamental  realities  rather  than  as  symptomatic  of  an 
industrial  and  social  evil,  or  the  less  obviously  abnormal 
forms  of  street-promenading,  the  watching  of  football- 
matches,  or  the  silent  absorption  of  the  thrills  of  "  the 
pictures."  As  the  power  of  active  protest  declines  passive 
resistance  will  grow,  and  some  see  it  growing  apace. 

The  authors  of  a  book  recently  published  detailing  the 
results  of  an  investigation  into  the  condition  of  the  Sheffield 
working  classes  describe  I  67  to  73  per  cent,  of  the  Sheffield 
factory  workers  as  being  mentally  asleep  ;  "  they  are 
spiritually  inert ;  they  desire  to  be  at  rest  and  left  alone  ; 
they  do  not  live  for  any  means  beyond  immediate  satis- 
factions ;  they  are  emphatically  not  bad  people  .  .  .  but 
at  present  their  value  to  the  community  is  economic 
rather  than  spiritual,  that  of  beasts  of  burden  rather  than 
that  of  free  human  beings." 

This  picture  is  probably  overdrawn ;  *  nevertheless 
it  represents  clearly  enough  the  danger  before  us — that 
of  a  gradually  increasing  multitude  of  workers  cut  off  from 

1  The  Equipment  of  the   Workers   (Allen  and  Unwin). 

*  Yet  according  to  the  reports  of  the  National  Service  Boards 
(Physical  Examination  of  Men  of  Military  Age,  vol.  i.)  the  citizens 
of  Sheffield  took  a  high  place  for  efficiency  when  compared  with 
those  of  other  industrial  centres.  Professor  Arthur  Keith,  F.R.S., 
M.D.,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  appointed  under  the 
chairmanship  of  Sir  James  Galloway  to  report  upon  the  physical 
examination  of  men  of  military  age  by  National  Service  Boards, 
said  in  the  course  of  an  interview,  "  Sir  Francis  Galton  had  pre- 
viously shown  how  you  could  estimate  the  number  of  fit  men  you 
ought  to  get.  His  findings,  with  Professor  Karl  Pearson's,  were 
applied.  Out  of  one  hundred  men  you  ought  to  get  seventy  fit 
for  full  service.  When  we  began  in  1917  to  look  into  the  industries 
in  the  North,  the  cotton  industries  of  Lancashire,  the  cloth  industries 
of  Leeds,  we  found  that  out  of  a  hundred  men  presented  for  recruits 
we  would  only  get  thirty  fit  to  go.  As  far  as  the  defence  of  the 
country  went,  the  other  seventy  were  shot  before  they  had  their 
uniforms." 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOUR     127 

an  intellectual  interest  in  their  work,  listless  and  unsatis- 
fied, the  sport  of  every  wave  and  gust  of  popular  passion, 
the  prey  of  every  unscrupulous  adventurer  and  quack 
who  seeks  to  exploit  their  credulity,  and  inflammable 
material  for  every  demagogue  who  is  eager  to  light  up 
the  fires  of  class  or  race  hatred. 

A  physical  examination  of  the  population  of  our  country 
has  revealed  many  remediable  defects.  A  mental  survey 
is  urgently  needed,  if  only  for  the  purpose  of  focussing 
public  attention  upon  the  problems  with  which  we  are 
confronted. 


§  4.  THE  LABOUR  ATTITUDE   TO   SCIENTIFIC 
MANAGEMENT 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  workers  have  not 
taken  kindly  to  "  scientific  management."  What  is  the 
fundamental  motive  of  the  objections  which  organized 
labour  may  justifiably  raise  against  Taylorism  as  a  whole  ? 
This  is  an  important  question.  In  attempting  to  answer 
it  we  should  understand  in  the  first  place  that  more  and 
more  is  the  student  of  psychology  coming  to  realize  that 
spoken  reasons  may  not  always  reveal  the  true  motives 
for  any  course  of  conduct  which  is  being  defended  or 
explained.  First  we  do  things  because  either  from  in- 
ternal or  external  necessity  we  must  do  them,  and  we 
find  appropriate  reasons  for  having  done  them  afterwards. 
Thus,  if  we  hypnotize  a  person  and  suggest  that  upon 
regaining  his  waking  state  he  will  get  up  from  his  seat 
and  open  the  windows  in  the  room,  then  at  the  time  pre- 
arranged he  will  interrupt  whatever  occupation  he  may 
have  taken  up,  and  proceed  to  carry  out  our  suggestion, 
without  the  least  consciousness  of  the  real  origin  of  his 
action.  And  if  we  ask  him  what  he  is  going  to  do,  he  will 
give  us  the  soundest  of  reasons  for  his  action,  as,  for 
example,  that  the  room  is  decidedly  stuffy  and  needs 
ventilating.  An  excellent  illustration  of  this  tendency 
to  rationalize  what  we  do  is  to  be  found  in  the  New 
Testament  in  the  carefully  thought  out  "  reasons  "  given 
by  the  guests  who  were  invited  to  the  Marriage  Supper. 
So  that  when  we  have  fully  discussed  labour's  declared 
case  for  opposition  to  scientific  management  it  is  still 
possible  that  the  true  motive  may  be  unconscious. 

Superficial  objections  on  the  part  of  labour  to  scientific 


126 


SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT  AND   LABOUR     129 

management  will  centre  about  the  "  unfair  "  division  of 
profits  ;  or  labour  may  urge  that  the  system  means  an 
undue  amount  of  unemployment  or  that  it  causes  abnormal 
"  speeding  up."  All  these  objections  can  at  present  be 
left  out  of  consideration  because  they  are  subsidiary  to 
the  main  objections,  just  as  a  worker's  consciously  stated 
reason  for  leaving  an  employer  may  be  altogether  inade- 
quate as  an  explanation  of  his  decision  to  do  so. 

Now,  Taylorism  thrived  in  its  early  days  in  centres 
where  trade  unionism  was  either  non-existent  or  ex- 
tremely weak.  At  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Works,  for  example, 
there  were  no  unionists  in  the  early  part  of  1910.  From 
1882  to  1911  Taylor  said  that  no  strikes  had  taken  place 
in  shops  where  scientific  management  was  in  being. 
Opposition  began  to  develop  in  1911,  and  in  1914  the 
United  States  Government  set  up  a  commission  of  inquiry 
into  the  allegations  of  the  labour  unions  against  the  system. 
Of  the  list  of  trade  union  objections  to  Taylorism  formu- 
lated by  the  American  workers,  and  set  out  by  Pro- 
fessor R.  F.  Hoxie,1  who  was  one  of  a  sub-commission  of 
three  empowered  to  investigate  the  working  of  Taylor's 
system,  the  principal  was  that,  "  scientific  management 
is  incompatible  with  and  destructive  of  collective  bargain- 
ing and  trades  unionism." 

Industrial  democracy,  as  we  understand  it  (wrote  Mr.  J.  P. 
Frey,  editor  of  a  labour  journal  and  a  member  of  the  same  sub- 
commission),  is  that  condition  in  the  industries  which  acknowledges 
and  accepts  the  right  of  labour  to  a  collective  voice  in  determining 
what  the  terms  of  employment  shall  be,  and  the  conditions  under 
which  men  and  women  shall  do  the  work  required  of  them;  it 
conforms  to  the  principle  that  government  in  the  shop,  like  govern- 
ment in  the  nation,  should  be  by  the  consent  of  the  governed.* 

Now,  from  the  original  view-point  of  Taylor  and  his 
disciples  there  could  be  no  possible  case  for  the  unions 
to  argue,  since  the  conditions  under  which  labour  was  to 
be  performed  and  the  rates  of  wages  to  be  paid  were 
to  be  settled  not  by  the  crude  method  of  individual  or 

1  R.  F.  Hoxie,  Scientific  Management  and  Labour. 
a  J.  P.  Frey,  Scientific  Management  and  Labour,  p.   17. 

9 


130     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

collective  bargaining,  but  by  the  more  exact  method  of 
scientific  experiment.  Scientific  management,  they  said, 
is  much  too  complicated  a  matter  for  ordinary  working 
men  to  understand,  and  so  they  ought  not  to  meddle 
with  it.  It  is  clear  that  in  many  cases  the  superiority 
of  management  in  matters  of  organization  and  general 
intelligence  is  in  no  way  obvious  to  the  worker.  Where 
wrorks  are  o^r-organized,  so  that  the  worker,  for  example, 
who  requires  a  small  article  has  to  make  his  application 
for  it  in  writing,  get  a  chit  signed  and  counter-signed, 
visit  the  store  and  wait  an  hour  for  the  thing  to  be  found, 
and  so  waste  time  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  value  of 
the  article,  feels  often  that  management  lacks  common 
sense.  The  skilled  worker  is  quite  intelligent  enough 
to  know  when  the  efficiency  of  management  begins  to 
flag.  In  the  dispute,  for  example,  between  the  Brinsmead 
piano  makers  and  their  workmen  last  year,  when  the 
latter  were  charged  with  slackness,  they  retorted  that 
they  could  not  work  properly  because  the  organization  of 
the  factory  was  inefficient,  a  view  supported,  if  we  may 
believe  the  press,  by  other  piano  manufacturers. 

According  to  the  scientific  management  view,  there 
is  no  legitimate  reason  for  the  existence  of  the  unions 
because  scientific  management  tends  to  produce  harmony 
of  aim  and  interest  between  masters  and  men.  '  In 
short,  the  philosophy  of  scientific  management  holds 
that  a  good  management,  like  a  good  father,  directs  those 
in  its  care  in  ways  more  satisfactory  than  the  latter  could 
themselves  choose."  x  But  though  it  may  be  admitted 
that  scientific  management  could  be  depended  upon  always 
to  treat  the  individual  fairly,  yet  in  an  exceptional  case 
he  would  have  no  option  but  to  quit  his  work  if  unable 
to  accept  his  employer's  point  of  view. 

As   long   as   scientific    management    firms   were   in   a 

minority,  and  could  attract  the  best  workmen  by  higher 

rates  of  pay  than  were  customary,  their  employees  could 

gain  very  little,  if  anything,  by  bargaining  collectively  ;  but 

1  H-  B.  Drury,  op.  cit,,  p.  195. 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT   AND   LABOUR   131 

when  the  system  becomes  more  general,  a  different  state 
of  affairs  holds,  and  the  fear  of  "  speeding  up  "  and  of 
wage-cutting  appears  to  labour  to  be  well  grounded. 

The  paternalism  of  the  scientific  management  expert 
and  his  unveiled  contempt  for  the  intelligence  of  the 
worker  are  certainly  irritating  to  the  labour  unions,  while 
his  cool  assumption  that  he  alone  ought  to  be  entrusted 
with  the  task  of  calculating  "  scientifically  "  the  rates 
of  pay  of  employees,  the  length  of  the  working  day,  the 
type  of  work  a  man  is  fitted  for,  and  so  on,  is  staggering 
to  the  English  trade  unionist.  In  many  instances  the 
leaders  of  the  movement  have  done  real  service  in  their 
concern  for  the  betterment  of  the  working  conditions 
in  their  factories,  but  in  investigating  the  question  of 
the  optimum  length  of  the  working  day,  they  do  not 
consider  that,  as  Drury  neatly  puts  it,  "  the  length  of 
the  working  day  should  be  fixed  with  a  view  of  enabling 
the  employee  to  get  the  most  satisfaction  out  of  life  as 
well  as  the  greatest  possible  work  out  of  his  limbs,"  x 
while  it  can  hardly  be  denied  that  their  wage-fixing  experi- 
ments were  motived  primarily  by  a  desire  to  serve  their 
own  interests,  as  is  well  illustrated  by  the  oft-quoted 
incident  at  a  bicycle-ball  factory  where  by  a  skilful  choice 
of  employees  gifted  with  the  aptitudes  required,  thirty- 
five  girls  were  found  who  could  do  effectually  what  it 
had  previously  taken  120  girls  to  do.  The  wages  of 
these  more  efficient  girls  were  doubled,  but  through  the 
dismissal  of  the  less  efficient  the  total  wage  bill  was  de- 
creased 50  per  cent.  Taylor's  pig-iron  loader  who  increased 
his  output  to  400  per  cent  of  the  original  figure  received 
only  a  50  per  cent,  increase  in  wages.  If  it  is  natural, 
as  will  be  said,  for  the  efficiency  expert  to  concentrate 
on  cheapening  output,  it  is  equally  natural  that  labour 
should  be  deeply  concerned  about  the  possibilities  of 
unemployment.2 

1  Op.  dt.,  p.  204. 

a  This  is  illustrated  in  the  following  passage  which  we  take  from  a 
daily  paper  ;— "  The  resolution  of  the  No.  50  Branch  of  the  National 


132     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

If  the  introduction  of  scientific  management  is  to  be 
successful,  then  there  must  be  a  modification  of  the 
expert's  attitude  towards  labour.  No  English  employer 
will  argue  cheerfully  as  Taylor  did  that  "  the  necessity  for 
the  labour  union  disappears  .  .  .  when  the  employers  take 
pains  to  study  the  character  and  performance  of  each 
of  their  employees  and  pay  them  accordingly/' x  But 
when  it  is  conceded  that  labour  has  an  indisputable  right 
to  bargain  on  the  question  of  wage-fixing  and  is  allowed 
to  do  so,  and  when,  moreover,  the  door  is  opened  through 
the  Whitley  Councils  to  ultimate  partnership  in  industry, 
there  should  be  no  rational  grievance  against  scientific 
management.  Then  the  first  charge  upon  industry  will 
be  that  of  maintaining  for  the  workers  the  minimum 
conditions  of  social  life  and  satisfaction.  Thus  the  interests 
of  management  and  labour  when  wisely  furthered  from 
both  sides  need  not  conflict.  But  how  can  they  be  made 
to  harmonize  ? 

At  bottom  it  is  fear  and  suspicion  based  on  long  experi- 
ence which  prompt  labour's  opposition  to  "  capital."  Such 
an  opposition  cannot  be  argued  out  of  existence  since  it 
is  not  a  product  in  the  main  of  reason  at  all.  It  is  easy 
to  ridicule  the  John  Balls  and  Jack  Cades  of  industry  on 
account  of  their  illogical  thought  (or  perhaps  loose  private 
morality),  but  the  resentment  against  the  conditions  of 
life  for  the  masses  which  they  symbolize  can  neither  be 
laughed  out  of  existence  nor  reasoned  away  ;  nor  can 
the  suspicion  they  betray  be  allayed  by  mere  words  or 
gestures.  You  can  no  more  argue  with  a  man  in  a  black 
mood  of  suspicion  than  you  can  with  a  man  who  speaks 

Amalgamated  Union  of  Labourers  on  the  question  of  the  introduction 
of  the  mechanical  scaling  hammer  reads  :  That  this  general  meet- 
ing strongly  condemns  the  action  of  the  district  official  delegate, 
also  the  district  committee,  in  allowing  the  mechanical  hammer 
to  be  introduced  in  Cammell  Laird's,  after  the  decision  of  Messrs. 
Harland  and  Wolff's  men  not  to  use  it  under  any  circumstances, 
and  thereby  resolve  to  take  drastic  action  should  the  same  be 
attempted  on  the  Liverpool  side." 
1  Shop  Management,  p.  186. 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOUR     183 

a  language  with  which  you  are  unfamiliar,  and  if  you  could 
it  would  do  little  good.  His  attitude  may  be  based  on  a 
passing  mood,  but  it  might  never  have  appeared  had  it 
been  wisely  anticipated. 

An  interesting  history  of  industrial  life  might  be  written 
with  the  growth  of  public  suspicion,  a  slow  underground 
affair,  as  its  leading  idea.  Untended  by  statesmen 
responsible  for  public  order  because  it  is  unobserved  till 
too  late,  such  suspicion  arrives  periodically  at  a  culminating 
point  and  bursts,  after  which  the  dispersal  of  the  harmful 
elements  is  a  matter  of  some  difficulty.  The  suspicion 
which  expressed  itself  at  the  beginning  of  the  Industrial 
Revolution  when  looms  were  smashed  and  factories  burned 
has  not  wholly  disappeared  :  workers  even  yet  are  not 
serenely  confident  of  their  industrial  security.  Till  such 
suspicion  and  fear  pass  away  they  must  be  studied,  and 
it  will  be  easier  to  predict  the  times  and  the  seasons  of 
these  bursting  periods  when  we  realize  that  the  life  of  the 
nation  to-day  pulses  most  vigorously  not  at  Westminster, 
but  in  the  warehouses  and  the  factories,  on  the  railways 
and  in  the  mines.  Suspicion  and  fear  can  be  removed,  but 
this  process,  one  of  psycho-therapy,  will  be  slow,  and  need 
tact  and  magnanimity  on  the  part  of  our  employers  and 
statesmen. 

The  labour  attitude  towards  motion  study  illustrates 
the  suspicion  of  which  we  have  spoken.  Gilbreth  is 
undoubtedly  animated  by  the  desire  to  get  rid  of  waste- 
ful methods  of  work  in  the  interests  of  both  employer 
and  employed.  But  he  is  like  a  man  who  has  invented 
a  lift  to  obviate  the  necessity  for  the  constant  climbing 
of  a  long  staircase.  He  demonstrates  his  labour-saving 
device,  and  is  surprised  to  find  that  labour  objects  to  it 
on  the  score,  say,  that  to  climb  a  staircase  once  is  pre- 
ferable to  the  monotony  of  using  the  lift  twenty  or  thirty 
times,  as  will  probably  become  the  rule  if  it  is  installed. 
It  will  be  in  vain  that  you  argue  that  billiards,  skating, 
golfing,  dressing  and  undressing,  and  a  hundred  other 
occupations  which  are  followed  constantly  without  causing 


134     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

us  boredom  are  just  as  monotonous  in  themselves  as  the 
motions  one  repeats  in  industry,  unless  you  remove  the 
fear  of  the  worker  that  you  are  engaged  in  a  conspiracy  to 
get  more  work  out  of  him  for  proportionately  less  pay. 
If  he  doesn't  trust  you,  remember  that  it  isn't  altogether 
his  fault.  You  are  conscious  maybe  only  of  the  best 
intentions,  but  he  is  chiefly  mindful  of  the  brutal  facts 
of  industrial  history  which  cannot  be  controverted. 

In  The  Works  Manager  To-day  Mr.  Sidney  Webb 
illustrates  this  point  very  well  : — 

You  must  not  dream  of  taking  a  single  step  in  the  direction  of 
scientific  management  until  it  has  been  very  elaborately  explained 
to,  and  discussed  by,  not  only  the  particular  men  with  whom  you 
are  going  to  experiment,  but  also  by  the  whole  workshop.  It 
will,  if  you  handle  it  with  any  competence,  be  a  matter  of  intense 
interest  to  them.  You  must  talk  to  them  both  publicly  and 
privately,  with  magic-lantern  slides  and  experimental  demonstra- 
tions, answering  endless  questions,  and  patiently  meeting  what 
seem  to  you  frivolous  objections.  The  workshop  committee  or 
the  shop  stewards  will  naturally  be  the  first  people  to  be  consulted. 
Remember,  it  is  the  men's  working  life  (not  your  own  life)  that 
you  are  proposing  to  alter,  and  their  craft  (not  yours)  that  you 
may  seem  to  be  going  to  destroy.  You  will  be  making  a  ruinous 
blunder,  fatal  to  the  maximum  efficiency  of  the  works,  if  you 
content  yourself  with  bribing,  by  high  rates,  bonuses  or  rewards, 
just  the  few  individual  men  whom  you  propose  to  put  on  the  new 
system,  whilst  leaving  the  opinion  of  the  rest  of  the  staff  sullenly 
averse.  The  others  will  not  be  appeased  merely  by  the  fact  that 
a  few  selected  men  are  making  "  good  money." 

And  you  must,  of  course,  make  it  clear  in  some  way,  to  your 
own  men  as  well  as  to  the  trade  union  concerned,  that  what  you 
are  proposing  to  introduce  will  not  merely  pay  the  first  lot  of 
selected  workmen,  and  not  merely  the  present  generation,  but  also 
will  have  a  good  influence  on  the  prospects  of  the  whole  staff,  and 
will  not  have  any  adverse  effects  on  the  standard  rate,  now  or 
hereafter.  Unless  you  can  demonstrate  this — unless  you  can  in 
some  way  automatically  protect  the  piece-work  rates  from  "  being 
cut  "  at  some  future  time — possibly  by  some  future  manager — 
you  will  be  met  (and  in  the  national  interest  you  ought  to  be  met) 
with  unrelenting  opposition  ;  and  if  you  impose  the  change  by  force 
or  individual  bribery,  you  will  inevitably  encounter  the  reprisals 
of  "  ca'  canny." 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND   LABOUR     135 

One  of  the  questions  which  it  is  difficult  for  labour  to 
argue  competently,  though  in  this  connection  it  is  con- 
vinced it  has  a  sound  case,  is  that  scientific  management 
will  involve  a  stereotyping  of  its  status  as  an  inferior 
class  in  society.  Labour  feels  that  it  is  only  required 
in  industry  as  a  beast  of  burden,  and  it  resents  the  ten- 
dency of  modern  management  to  usurp  initiative  and 
judgment  entirely.  This  feeling  is  strengthened  by 
the  tactless  conduct  of  such  semi-educated  managers  as 
make  use  of  remarks  like  the  following,  "  We  put  the 
brains  into  the  machines  before  we  put  the  women  on 
them."  The  feeling  of  thwarted  manhood  is  probably 
one  of  the  blind,  unreasoning,  unconscious  forces  respon- 
sible for  strikes. 

Scientific  management  will  thrive  in  its  original  form 
only  so  long  as  opposition  of  this  kind  can  be  met  and 
overcome  by  tact,  but  the  chief  recruiting-agency  for 
the  ranks  of  contented  timid  rabbit-minded  labour  suitable 
for  mechanical  occupations  is  no  longer  able  to  guarantee 
a  continual  stream  of  fresh  workers  into  industry.1  The 
public  elementary  school  has  hitherto  trained  the  young 
humanity  of  the  streets  for  docile  factory  life  with  great 
success.  The  repressive  methods  of  education  which 
crushed  out  the  vitality  of  explosive  personalities  have 
given  way  to  more  enlightened  ones,  so  that  now  we  are 
beginning  to  see  our  children  enter  industry  with  bright 
hopes  of  discovering  there  the  means  to  self-expression  and 
happy  activity.  But  before  their  hopes  can  materialize 
there  will  be  a  transition  period  of  considerable  difficulty 
to  be  passed  through.  The  educational  tide,  however,  is 
now  in  full  flow,  bearing  upon  it  to-day  not  only  the  old 

1  "  Not  many  years  ago  Sir  John  Blundell  Maple  told  the  London 
County  Council  that  his  best  business  employees  were  those  who 
came  from  charity  schools,  such  as  Spurgeon's  Asylum  and  the 
Orphan  Working  Asylum,  because  they  were  brought  up  to  dis- 
cipline and  were  organizable.  The  schools  of  the  future  will  have 
their  discipline,  but  it  will  not  be  the  kind  of  discipline  which 
employers  of  this  type  desiderate  "  (J.  L.  P.  in  Manchester  Guardian, 
August,  1920). 


136    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

fleet  of  slow  barges  weighted  down  beneath  their  burdens, 
passive  slaves  of  the  current,  but  an  increasing  number 
of  ships  of  adventure  as  well,  seeking  something  of  romance 
and  enduring  satisfaction  in  life. 

Unless  scientific  management  takes  this  fact  into 
intimate  account,  the  term  "  scientific  "  will  eventually 
become  in  this  connection  a  word  of  derision  and  reproach 
among  thinking  men. 

REFERENCES 

DRURY,  H.  B. :    Scientific  Management,  a  History  and  a  Criticism. 
EMERSON,  H.  :    Efficiency  as  a  Basis  for  Operation  and  Wages. 
GANTT,  H.  L.  :   Work,  Wages  and  Profits. 
HOXIE,  R.  F.  :    Scientific  Management  and  Labour. 
McKiLLOP,  M.  and  A.  D.  :    Efficiency  Methods. 
Muscio,  B.  :    Lectures  on  Industrial  Psychology. 
TAYLOR,    F.    W.  :     Principles    of    Scientific    Management ;     Shop 
Management. 


CHAPTER  VI 

INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

§  i.  CLASS  CONSCIOUSNESS 

THE  phenomenon  of  industrial  unrest  tends  to  assume 
such  an  ominous  shape  to-day  that  we  can  no  longer 
regard  it  complacently  as  the  inevitable  accompaniment 
of  healthy  growth  ;  we  are  beginning  to  see  it  rather  as 
an  unmistakable  symptom  of  the  pathological  condition 
of  much  of  our  present  civilization.  The  latter  view 
seems  certainly  to  give  us  the  facts  as  they  are  in  a  truer 
perspective,  and  this  being  so,  it  may  be  possible  that 
we  shall  reach  an  understanding  of  the  inner  nature  of 
social  disorder  through  a  study  of  the  more  easily  explored 
and  better  understood  disturbances  which  are  apt  to  occur 
in  certain  circumstances  in  the  individual  mind.  Indeed, 
one  might  positively  say  that  without  a  knowledge  of 
abnormal  psychology,  the  science  which  deals  with 
individual  mental  aberrations,  the  student  of  social 
phenomena  is  on  a  dark  uncharted  sea  without  stars 
or  compass. 

Many  years  ago  Herbert  Spencer  attempted  to  work 
out  in  detail  a  close  parallel  between  a  society  and  an 
organism.  Thus,  he  said,  we  may  liken  the  central 
executive  of  a  nation  to  the  brain  ;  the  telegraphic  system 
to  the  nerves  ;  the  highways  and  byways  of  commerce  to 
the  arteries  and  veins  ;  and  so  on.  A  succession  of  critics 
has  since  ridiculed  the  analogy  as  being  fantastically 
overdrawn.  But  if  we  now  speak,  though  still  figuratively, 

1ST 


138    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

of  the  common  mind  *  of  a  people,  when  represented,  for 
example,  in  their  common  purposes,  as  being  subject  to 
the  same  laws  as  the  individual  mind,  we  shall  be  making 
use,  we  believe,  of  no  such  similarly  untrustworthy 
analogy. 

In  the  last  two  or  three  decades  considerable  progress 
has  been  made  in  the  investigation  of  the  type  of  mind 
which  is  characterized  by  conflicting  and  irreconcilable 
impulses  of  so  abnormal  a  kind  as  to  cause  mental  break- 
down. Mental  disorders  which  in  their  etiology  baffled  the 
nineteenth-century  alienist  can  now  be  opened  up  to  a 

1  Obversely,  we  have  Plato's  dramatization  of  the  mind  of  man 
as  a  State.  See  also  Julius  Ccesar,  II.  i. 

"  Between  the  acting  of  a  dreadful  thing 
And  the  first  motion,  all  the  interim  is 
Like  a  phantasma  or  a  hideous  dream  ; 
The  genius  and  the  mortal  instruments 
Are  then  in  council  ;   and  the  state  of  man 
Like  to  a  little  kingdom  suffers  then 
The  nature  of  an  insurrection." 

Since  the  above  was  written  there  has  appeared  in  The  Group 
Mind  a  brilliant  exposition  of  this  analogy  by  Prof.  McDougall. 
We  quote  one  or  two  passages  : — 

"  The  enduring  reflex  and  instinctive  dispositions  of  the  indi- 
vidual mind  we  may  liken  to  the  established  institutions  of  a  nation, 
such  as  the  army  and  navy,  the  post  office,  the  judicial  and  the 
administrative  systems  of  officials.  These,  like  the  instincts,  are 
specialized  executive  organizations  working  in  relative  independ- 
ence of  one  another,  each  discharging  some  specialized  function. 
...  In  both  cases  the  mental  organization  is  in  part  materialized, 
the  instinct  in  the  form  of  specialized  nervous  structure,  the  in- 
stitution in  the  form  of  the  material  organization  essential  to  its 
efficient  action.  .  .  .  The  higher  type  of  individual  mind  is  char- 
acterized by  the  development  of  the  intellectual  organization  by 
means  of  which  the  activities  of  the  various  instincts  .  .  .  may  be 
brought  into  co-operation  with  or  duly  subordinated  to  one  another. 
.  .  .  Exactly  the  same  is  true  of  the  more  highly  evolved  type 
of  national  mind  ...  it  has  a  deliberate  organization  which 
renders  possible  a  play  of  ideas  ;  and  through  this  the  operations 
of  the  institutions  are  modified  and  controlled  in  detail  and  are 
harmonized  in  a  way  which  constitutes  a  higher  integration  of 
the  whole." 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  139 

more  or  less  detailed  inspection  ;  but  our  disintegrated 
social  purposes  have  not  yet  received  the  same  measure 
of  patient  attention  on  the  part  of  the  professional  psy- 
chologist. Yet  there  are  dissociations  or  disintegrations 
of  the  disturbed  social  will  as  deep  as  those  of  the 
abnormal  individual  mind.  The  curious  reader  with  a 
keen  scent  for  parallels  would  easily  be  able  to  outrival 
the  ingenuity  of  Spencer  and  discover  a  multitude  of 
points  of  similarity  between  the  mental  disorders  of 
society  and  those  of  the  individual ;  for  example,  he 
would  see  that  just  as  in  dreams  we  often  imagine  our- 
selves to  be  enjoying  something  which  is  denied  us  in 
real  life,  thereby  gaining  a  small  measure  of  shadowy 
satisfaction,  so  the  community  enjoys  as  rumour  or  myth 
that  which  it  would  like  to  see  but  cannot  see  achieved  ; 
and  just  as  there  are  dreams  which  indicate  general  health 
but  also  those  which  betray  a  lack  of  it,  so  there  are 
rumours  and  myths  which  are  creditable  to  the  conscience 
of  a  community  and  those  which  are  not.  Or  he  may 
realize  that  ca'  canny  and  sabotage  are  essentially  the 
mark  of  an  industrial  obsession,  that  is,  it  is  due  to  a  sub- 
conscious belief  habitually  operative  that  it  is  not  worth 
while  working  hard  if  others  benefit  by  your  labour  more 
than  you  do  yourself.  And  what  is  "  direct  action,"  he 
may  aptly  inquire,  but  a  form  of  social  hysteria,  the 
result  of  impotence  on  the  part  of  the  central  executive 
in  the  face  of  disruptive  revolutionary  elements  ? 

During  the  latter  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century 
Pierre  Janet  crowned  the  efforts  of  the  Charcot  school 
of  psychiatrists  with  his  penetratingly  clear  analyses 
of  the  characteristics  of  psychasthenia,  hysteria  and 
other  less  simple  types  of  weakened  or  disintegrated 
individual  consciousness.1  To-day,  too,  we  have  our 
students  of  contemporary  civilization  who  are  able  to 
describe  in  intimate  detail  the  anatomy  of  our  social 
unrest.  But  just  as  we  were  unable  to  explain  scientifically 
the  causes  for  the  occurrence  of  what  Janet  called  the 
1  See  The  Major  Symptoms  of  Hysteria. 


140    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

weakening  or  the  disintegration  of  the  "  mental  synthesis  " 
in  the  individual  mind  before  Freud  introduced  to  us  his 
concepts  of  mental  conflict,  repression,  and  the  unconscious, 
and  Jung  his  theory  of  regression  and  the  complex,  so 
we  shall  be  at  a  loss  whenever  we  attempt  to  account 
completely  for  industrial  disorder  till  we  can  discover 
for  general  application  some  such  similarly  useful  concepts 
of  etiology. 

Mr.  Trotter x  has  recently  helped  us  to  understand 
how  the  Freudian  concepts  may  be  applied  at  one  point 
to  an  elucidation  of  our  social  problems.  Freud,  as  a 
typical  individualist,  speaks  of  the  early  appearance  in 
every  young  child  of  a  tendency  to  repress  from  con- 
sciousness those  pleasurable  ideas  and  wishes  which  it 
would  cost  him  much  pain  to  express.  Throughout 
life  this  tendency  continues,  so  that  in  most  cases  there 
develops  in  the  unconscious  "  regions  "  of  the  mind  a 
steadily  increasing  complexity  of  desires  which  are  un- 
acceptable to  the  rational  personality,  and  are  consequently 
"  kept  under." 

Yet  one  cannot  easily  imagine  that  a  child  brought 
up  from  birth  in  complete  isolation  would  find  himself 
often  torn  between  conflicting  emotions.  Now,  Trotter 
is  able  to  illustrate  to  us  quite  clearly  the  fact  that  man 
is,  as  Freud  truly  declared,  a  "  double-minded  "  creature  of 
warring  impulses,  though  not  because  of  a  mental  conflict 
which  is  wholly  determined  from  within,  but  because 
he  is  compelled  as  a  gregarious  creature  either  to  accept 
the  conventions  of  the  social  group  of  which  he  is  born 
a  member,  or  to  live  the  life  of  a  social  outcast ;  he  finds 
it  imperatively  necessary,  that  is,  to  repress  certain  of 
his  anti-social  tendencies,  some  of  which  cry  out  urgently 
at  times  for  satisfaction.  This  is  difficult  for  the  socially 
oppressed.  Still,  the  healthiest  individuals  are  those  who 
are  able  to  "  sublimate  "  rather  than  obliterate  these 
anti-social  tendencies  ;  and  by  a  gradual  process  of  refine- 
ment give  them  socially  approved  forms  of  expression  : 
1  Instincts  of  the  Herd  in  Peact  and  War. 


INDUSTRIAL  UNREST  141 

thus,  in  the  case  of  the  man  completely  adapted  to  social 
life  carnal  lust  will  blossom  into  pity  and  lovingkindness, 
animal  pugnacity  take  on  the  form  of  ideal  striving, 
morbid  curiosity  find  ideal  satisfaction  in  scientific 
research,  and  so  on.  But  where  crude  passion  is  strong, 
and,  owing  to  defective  training  or  unfortunate  circum- 
stances, no  socially  approved  substitute  forms  are  spon- 
taneously discovered,  then  mental  "  civil  war  "  between 
the  "  ego  "  and  the  "  herd  "  impulses  frequently  occurs, 
and  in  such  times  of  crisis  the  mind  which  is  unable  to 
stand  the  strain  becomes  either  seriously  weakened  or 
disintegrated.1 

Even  though  in  the  normal  mind  we  may  find  that  what 
is  repressed  apparently  disappears,  it  is  still  unconsciously 
alive  and  alert,  ready  to  burst  out  into  expression  when 
self-control  is  relaxed  through  fatigue  or  overstrain,  thus 
remaining  always  a  potential  menace  to  well-being.  We 
cannot  get  rid  of  undesirable  ideas  or  feelings  by  a  ruth- 
less attempt  to  banish  them  from  the  conscious  mind, 
because,  if  we  try,  what  happens  is  that  they  are  merely 
thrust  down  deeper  into  the  mind  where  they  are  beyond 
the  healthy  surveillance  of  the  reason.  There  is  no 
better  way  of  ridding  oneself  of  a  troublesome  complex 
of  ideas  or  feelings  than  to  search  it  out,  with  the  aid  of 
a  psycho-analyst  if  necessary,  restore  it  vividly  to 
experience,  face  it  frankly  and  rationally,  and  having 
understood  it,  plan  substitute  activities  capable  of  draining 
off  from  it  all  the  current  of  its  vitality.  The  main  lesson 
from  this  for  the  student  of  social  phenomena  is  that 
you  cannot  preserve  industrial  peace  by  keeping  what 
corresponds,  in  society,  to  the  complex  "  under,"  "  in  its 
proper  place."  Frank  face-to-face  discussion  and  mutual 
toleration  will  alone  restore  our  social  equilibrium. 

i  It  is  probable,  we  think,  that  in  the  history  of  man's  mental 
evolution,  phylogenetic  as  well  as  ontogenetic,  self-consciousness 
appeared  as  the  result  of  the  clash  of  sex  and  hunger  impulses  on 
the  one  hand,  and  of  the  herd  conventions  on  the  other.  "  Selfish- 
ness "  before  this  event  was  and  is  non-existent. 


142     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

Now,  the  governors  and  the  governed,  the  employers  and 
the  workers  have,  since  the  Industrial  Revolution,  too  often 
stood  in  relation  to  each  other  as  the  conscious  to  the  un- 
conscious, as  the  rational  to  the  irrational,  as  the  superior 
to  the  inferior,  as  the  approved  to  the  disapproved.  They 
have  led  different  lives  and  pursued  different  interests, 
rarely  meeting  on  common  ground.  The  sane  and  single- 
hearted  person  is  free  from  complexes  because  he  knows 
himself  thoroughly  and  because  he  has  no  desires  or  ideas 
which  are  so  mutually  incompatible  that  he  is  afraid 
to  face  them.  Similarly,  the  healthy  community  will  be 
one  in  which  the  lion  lies  down  with  the  lamb  (as  well 
as  the  donkey),  and  there  is  no  "  repression  "  of  any  class 
of  society  which  has  a  grievance.  For  as  in  every  indi- 
vidual, so  in  every  society  there  is  no  unrest  which  cannot 
be  traced  to  a  conflict  of  deeply-rooted  emotional  ten- 
dencies/ The  mere  existence  of  differences  of  opinion 
or  of  social  status  will  not  produce  a  lasting  disharmony. 
But  society  to-day  is  like  the  family  where,  in  place 
of  common  interests,  cross-purposes  continually  prevail, 
where  the  children  who  are  unable  to  bear  in  tran- 
quillity the  heavy  hand  of  a  tyrannical  parent  secretly 
rebel  against  his  authority  and  react  under  the  constant 
influence  of  concealed  emotion.  Now,  abnormal  psychology 
teaches  us  that  the  whole  course  of  life  may  be  decided 
once  and  for  all  by  the  presence  of  such  an  "  inferiority  " 
complex  vitalized  by  low  flash  emotions  as  often 
develops  in  the  children  of  a  harsh  parent  or  guardian 
who  thwarts  them  at  every  turn. 

In  a  study  of  social  unrest  we  shall  find  that  the  conduct 
of  the  labouring  classes  possesses  in  periods  of  unrest 
all  the  characteristics  of  that  of  an  individual  reacting 
under  the  influence  of  a  repressed  complex,  all  the  quality 
of  the  behaviour  of  the  neurotic  son  of  a  stern  unbending 
father/  The  attitude  of  the  employer  towards  labour 
is  also  frequently  the  result  of  a  pathological  reaction 
due  to  subconscious  fear.  Every  one  who  is  acquainted 
with  the  social  history  of  modern  communities  must  be 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  143 

aware  that  the  story  of  the  manual  labourer  is  a  long 
record  of  suffering  and  oppression,  broken  occasionally 
in  the  past  by  such  incidents  as  the  Peasants'  Revolt  in 
England,  the  Peasants'  War  in  Germany,  and  the  Revo- 
lution in  France,  but  more  frequently  to-day  by  strikes  and 
sabotage  :  all  are  reaction  phenomena  marking  the  erup- 
tion of  emotions  which  have  been  too  long  repressed. 
It  has  been  made  difficult  for  the  embittered  worker 
to  take  the  social  point  of  view.  If  such  things  continue, 
then  our  statesmen  must  forfeit  their  right  to  respect. 
There  has  been,  as  will  be  admitted,  far  too  much 
fear  of  losing  prestige,  and  too  much  contempt  for  the 
"  lower  orders  "  in  most  of  the  dealings  of  capital  with 
labour  in  the  past.  The  call  for  "  stern  measures," 
however,  usually  betrays  the  tyrant's  feelings  of  insecurity. 
Wherever  there  is  exaggerated  feeling  there  may  be 
reason  to  suspect  the  presence  of  morbidity  of  tempera- 
ment. 

In  the  normal  mind  it  is  when  reason  is  unable  to 
harmonize  the  warring  impulses,  and  abdicating  her 
impartial  throne,  throws  in  her  lot  with  one  set  of  ten- 
dencies and  strives  to  repress  the  others  from  conscious- 
ness, that  mental  breakdown  is  apt  to  occur/  We  have 
the  exact  parallel  of  this  procedure  at  the  outset  of  the 
Industrial  Revolution,  a  parallel  which  no  being  with 
omnipotent  powers  could  have  substituted  with  closer 
faithfulness.  Up  till  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Parliament  fairly  represented  the  national  conscience 
and  reason,  dealing  dispassionately  and  usually  in  the 
common  interest  with  the  grievances  of  both  em- 
ployers and  employed  when  submitted  to  them.  But 
with  the  enactment  of  the  Combination  Laws  (1799- 
1800)  Parliament  ceased  to  be  a  unifying  factor  in 
the  national  life,  and  by  adopting  the  settled  policy  of 
laissez  faire  (when  it  did  not  openly  side  with  the 
employers)  left  the  disintegrated  classes  to  fight  out 
their  quarrel.  Historically,  then,  as  well  as  psycho- 
logically, abnormal  conditions  precede  the  appearance 


144    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

of  class  consciousness.  And  exactly  as  the  repressed 
complex  in  the  individual  mind  remains  to  disturb  the 
peace  of  the  individual  mind,  so  the  workers  who  were 
for  several  decades  forbidden  to  combine  openly  were 
driven  to  plot  in  an  underhand  manner  against  those 
who  had  thrust  them  down  into  subservience.  The 
first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  provides  innumer- 
able instances  of  blind  and  violent  reaction  against  the 
law,  of  secret  conspiracies,  sabotage,  outrage  and  revolu- 
tionary sentiment.  The  conduct  of  both  employers  and 
employed  was  characterized  by  over-reaction,  the  surest 
sign  of  abnormality. 

Books  like  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages*  The 
Town  Labourer  *  and  The  Skilled  Labourer  3  make  unhappy 
reading,  but  they  help  us  to  realize  why  mistrust  and  anger 
still  prevail.  While  the  workers  have  demanded  freedom, 
those  in  control  of  the  industrial  system  have  insisted 
on  their  subservience.  Until  recently  the  accepted 
doctrine  was  that  industries  belonged  entirely  to  their 
"  owners,"  so  that  labour  ought  not  to  concern  itself 
about  anything  but  wages,  hence  the  belief  of  labour  that 
capital  cares  nothing  for  labour,  except  as  a  profit-pro- 
ducing instrument.  We  may  now  say  that  the  years 
of  subservience  have  passed,  but  their  legacy  of  hatred 
remains.  Every  one  who  has  actually  lived  the  life 

1  See  S.  and  B.  Webb,  History  of  Trade   Unionism. 

*  Thorold  Rogers. 

3  J.  L.  and  B.  Hammond  :  "  And  so  we  see  on  one  side  strikes, 
outbursts  of  violence,  agitations,  now  for  a  minimum  wage,  now 
for  the  right  to  combine,  attempts,  sometimes  ambitious  and  far- 
sighted,  to  co-operate  for  mutual  aid  and  mutual  education,  the 
pursuit  from  time  to  time  of  projects  for  the  reform  of  Parliament ; 
on  the  other,  Ministers  and  magistrates  replying  with  the  unhesitat- 
ing and  unscrupulous  use  of  every  weapon  they  can  find1:  spies, 
agents  provocateurs,  military  occupation,  courts  of  justice  used 
deliberately  for  the  purposes  of  a  class  war,  all  the  features  of  armed 
government  where  a  garrison  is  holding  its  own  in  the  midst  of  a 
hostile  people.  It  is  not  surprising  that  a  civil  war  in  which  such 
issues  were  disputed  and  such  methods  were  employed  was  fierce 
and  bitter  at  the  time,  or  that  it  left  behind  it  implacable  memories." 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  145 

of  the  poor  of  the  slums  for  several  years  will  agree  that 
the  emotional  reactions  of  bitterness  and  suspicion  are 
so  deeply  inwrought  as  to  be  wellnigh  ineradicable  :  they 
have  become  rooted  habit.  The  class-war  may  not,  as  such, 
openly  exist,  but  every  inflammable  factor  is  unfortunately 
ready  to  hand  for  the  firebrand  who  shall  have  the  audacity 
when  a  crisis  is  sufficiently  acute  to  start  a  general  con- 
flagration. Unless  we  grow  wise  in  time,  such  a  calamity 
will  be  rendered  inevitable.  When  management,  there- 
fore, flouts  the  intelligence  of  the  workers,  may  we  not 
say  that  we  have  a  social  phenomenon  exactly  parallel  to 
that  which  is  manifested  in  the  behaviour  of  an  abnormal 
individual  whose  mind  is  split  into  two  clusters  of  interests 
which  function  separately  ?  Only  a  common  purpose  or 
a  common  interest  can  restore  unity  and  health  and  the 
possibility  of  permanent  progress.  Without  such  a  purpose 
the  outlawed  factors  may  completely  disorganize  the  whole 
of  which  they  are  a  despised  part. 

From  this  heritage  of  mistrust  and  sense  of  inferiority, 
which  is  the  common  lot  of  millions  to-day,  the  only 
way  of  escape  for  the  worker  is  to  pass  out  of  the  category 
of  wage-earners.  Thus  the  type  of  labour  leader  whose 
idealism  is  not  proof  against  prosperity  finds  that  he  has 
no  longer  the  passion  of  a  rebel  when  his  status  is  that 
of  a  privileged  person,  and  he  ceases  to  have  a  personal 
grievance  against  those  in  authority. 

But  those  who  are  compelled  to  remain  poor,  and  are 
neither  enfeebled  through  constant  drudgery,  nor  able 
to  escape  through  the  gate  of  phantasy  to  where  they 
may  be  nourished  by  "  myths  "  rather  than  starved  by 
a  starker  reality,  find  it  practically  impossible  to  remain 
long  at  peace,  for  daily  the  irritating  extravagances  of 
the  well-to-do  are  flaunted  before  their  eyes ;  and  though 
they  may  not  so  lose  control  as  to  proclaim  open  war  on 
those  whom  they  imagine  to  be  unrighteously  impover- 
ishing them,  they  nevertheless  take  advantage  of  every 
possible  means  short  of  it  to  give  vent  to  their  bitterness 
of  heart.  We  have  no  fire,  that  is  to  say,  but  there 

10 


146    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

is,  nevertheless,  much  unmistakable  smouldering.  The 
danger  of  an  intensified  conflict  between  rich  and  poor 
will  be  the  greater  when  the  better  educated  sections 
of  the  community  are  also  being  thrust  down  into  posi- 
tions close  to  the  poverty  line.  A  submerged  intelligentsia 
cannot  submit  long  in  modern  times  to  degradation 
(Russia  has  shown)  without  lighting  the  torches  to  be  used 
to  burn  down  the  structure  of  civilization  about  our  ears. 

If  we  are  right  in  ascribing  unrest  to  the  presence  of 
an  inferiority  complex  in  the  mind  of  labour,  then  such 
other  reasons  offered  to  account  for  it  as  Bolshevist  pro- 
paganda, drink,  laziness,  the  housing  problem,  dissatis- 
faction with  the  government,  with  the  profiteers,  or  with 
the  result  of  the  war,  can  be  no  more  than  superficially 
plausible  or  partially  true.  The  psychological  law  is 
clear  :  where  there  is  continued  unrest,  there  is  fundament- 
ally a  sharp  clash  of  instincts  responsible  for  it  ;  till  this 
conflict  is  resolved,  there  can  be  no  enduring  peace.  Thus 
compulsory  arbitration  in  the  absence  of  the  spirit  of 
conciliation  will  be  merely  an  artificial  attempt  at  fusing 
sundered  interests  ;  you  cannot  force  the  spirit  of  recon- 
ciliation into  existence,  "  No  man  can  enter  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  by  violence."  I 

That  our  view  is  substantially  correct  is  evidenced  by 
the  consensus  of  opinion  behind  the  following  quotations, 
which,  we  think,  will  be  accepted  by  most  readers  as 
authoritative  : — 

Mr.  William  Adamson,  chairman  of  the  Parliamentary 

1  Speaking  of  industrial  strife,  Professor  Sidgwick  wrote  in  his 
essays,  National  and  International  Right  and  Wrong :  "  There  is 
no  kind  of  strife  to  which  the  application  of  the  method  of  arbitra- 
tion appears  at  first  sight  more  reasonable,  or  is  more  commonly 
demanded  ;  but  there  is  none  in  which  the  nature  of  the  case 
ordinarily  presents  greater  obstacles  to  the  satisfactory  application 
of  it.  The  difficulty  here  is  not  so  much  to  find  an  arbitrator 
adequately  free  from  bias  as  to  find  principles  of  distributive  justice 
which  the  common  sense  of  both  the  classes  concerned  accepts. 
This  is  a  difficulty  that  seems  to  reach  its  maximum  in  the  present 
state  of  society,  which  is  distracted  between  two  opposing  ideals. 


INDUSTRIAL  UNREST  147 

Labour  Party,  told  the  business  men  of  Glasgow  that 
one  of  the  principal  causes  contributing  to  industrial 
unrest  was  the  co-existence  in  the  community  of  those 
with  unlimited  wealth  and  those  in  abject  misery.  We 
quote  this  opinion  to  illustrate  our  point  that  labour  is 
not  always  completely  aware  of  the  psychology  of  its 
own  mental  condition.  There  have  always  been  rich 
and  poor,  but  poverty  is  not  unbearable,  even  when 
compulsory,  unless  the  poor  are  brutally  reminded  of  their 
inferiority  so  that  resentment  is  positively  aroused.  It  is 
not  so  much  the  want  of  wealth  as  the  contemptuous 
assumption  of  some  that  there  must  be  poor.  To  the 
worker,  ceremonial  discipline  emphasized,  for  example, 
in  the  addressing  of  the  employee  by  his  surname  and 
the  need  for  the  cap-in-hand  attitude  of  reply,  in  the 
first-class  railway  carriage,  the  luxurious  motor  car,  the 
furs  and  the  diamonds  of  the  theatre  parties,  and  so  on, 
are  eloquent  to  him  of  a  desire  for  his  own  continued 
inferiority.  They  do  not  annoy  the  unembittered. 
There  are  other  factors  to  be  found  which  are  responsible 
for  our  unrest,  not  the  least  powerful  at  present  being 
the  reaction  of  the  masses  from  the  apparently  futile 
idealism  of  the  war-period ;  but  these  factors  would  count 
for  little  if  they  were  not  continually  reinforced  by  the 
thwarted  or  distorted  emotions  which  are  kept  stirring 
in  the  inferiority  complex. 

Bishop  Gore  gave  his  opinion  recently  upon  the  servant 
problem,  which  in  one  way  reveals  to  us  the  whole  problem 
of  capital  and  labour  in  miniature.  He  ascribed  the  lack 
of  recruits  for  domestic  service  to  the  fact  that  the  common 
opinion  that  there  were  two  classes  of  people,  the  mistress 
class  and  the  maids,  was  being  challenged.  There  are  no 
masters  by  divine  right,  he  said,  and  in  the  future  there 
would  be  no  privileged  class.  Why,  it  may  be  asked, 
have  we  had  to  wait  till  now  for  this  challenge  ?  Because 
to-day  the  contrast  between  luxury  and  want  rankles  in 
the  minds  of  the  poor,  who  have  at  last  received  the 
rudiments  of  an  education,  as  it  never  did  before. 


148    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

Mr.  Sidney  Webb  at  Oxford  in  April  last  put  the  psy- 
chological case  with  equal  plainness.  Philanthropy  and 
welfare  schemes,  he  declared,  would  not  in  themselves 
allay  arrest ;  and  this,  he  said,  explained  why  some  em- 
ployers were  pained  by  what  they  regarded  as  the  in- 
gratitude of  their  workers.  As  the  workmen  saw  it,  good 
wages,  short  hours,  welfare  and  considerate  treatment 
were  no  better  than  the  good  treatment  of  a  horse,  so 
long  as  they  were  denied  a  status  in  the  direction  of  their 
own  labour. 

Lord  Haldane,  in  his  address  this  year  (1920)  to  the 
Co-operative  Educational  Association  surveyed  the 
problem  of  unrest  from  the  point  of  view  of  education, 
and  said  in  the  course  of  his  speech : — 

I  have  come  to  the  opinion  after  a  good  deal  of  study,  that  the 
chief  cause  of  the  sense  of  separation  between  rich  and  poor  arises 
not  so  much  over  questions  of  wages  and  hours  and  social  surround- 
ings, as  over  chances  of  education.  The  man  who  feels  that  he  has 
it  in  him  to  have  made  a  fuller  use  of  his  faculties  is  embittered 
if  he  thinks  he  has  been  denied  the  chance  of  doing  so  by  being 
shut  out  from  the  training  that  has  been  lavished  on  many  whom 
he  sees  to  be  by  nature  inferior  to  himself.  (Our  italics.) 

Let  us  quote  next  from  a  lecture  delivered  by  Professor 
J.  B.  Baillie  in  the  Industrial  Administration  Depart- 
ment of  the  Manchester  College  of  Technology  last  year. 
Except  that  he  does  not  so  strongly  emphasize  the  funda- 
mental importance  of  the  inferiority  complex  in  motiving 
unrest  as  we  do — and  until  the  similarity  between  social 
disorder  and  abnormal  individual  mentality  is  more  clearly 
realized  there  cannot  perhaps  be  such  emphasis — his  view 
and  ours  substantially  coincide. 

The  apparent  or  real  accident  of  fortune  which  places  one  man 
at  a  disadvantage  or  in  a  condition  of  inferiority  to  another  in 
obtaining  a  livelihood,  and  which  turns  one  into  an  employer  and 
another  into  an  operative,  cannot  but  stimulate  into  activity  the 
dormant  passions  of  jealousy,  envy,  suspicion,  and  distrust  with 
which  human  nature  is  endowed.  It  is  useless  to  close  one's  eyes 
to  the  fact  that  these  passions,  however  they  originate  in  special 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  149 

circumstances,  are  inseparable  accompaniments,  and  are  partially 
causes  of  industrial  unrest.  The  division  of  the  industrial  world 
into  employers  and  employees,  masters  and  men,  inevitably  gives 
rise  to  separation  of  interests,  to  class  consciousness.  The  dis- 
tinction is  kept  up  by  all  sorts  of  conditions,  some  natural  and  reason- 
able, others  artificial  and  arbitrary.  The  division  between  the  two 
becomes  accentuated  by  each  seeking  its  own  interest  and  ad- 
vantage at  the  expense  of  the  other,  by  separate  forms  of  education 
and  manner  of  life.  They  rarely  meet  except  to  bargain  or  to 
give  and  receive  orders.  Their  minds  tend  to  become  alienated 
from  one  another.  Understanding  and  sympathy  are  easily  broken, 
or  in  extreme  cases  lost  altogether.  Yet  the  two  are  inseparable 
in  the  enterprise  of  industry. 

Finally  we  must  quote  Mr.  D.  L.  Thomas,  the  chairman 
of  the  Welsh  Housing  and  Development  Association, 
who  writes  with  marked  psychological  insight  in  an 
introduction  to  Pithead  and  Factory  Baths  in  putting  for- 
ward the  view  that  the  social  advantages  of  a  pithead 
system  of  baths  far  transcend  the  merely  utilitarian. 

Cleanliness  is  an  essential  part  of  decent  living  (he  says).  If 
in  the  streets  and  public  conveyances  workmen,  on  returning 
from  work  in  dirty  clothes  and  with  blackened  faces,  habitually 
meet  other  people  with  clean  exteriors,  consciousness  of  their  own 
outward  condition  is  bound  to  react  injuriously  on  their  minds 
and  character.  Their  self-respect,  especially  if  they  form  a  minority 
of  the  population,  is  bound  to  be  undermined,  and  they  are  less 
likely  to  have  a  due  regard  for  the  decencies  and  courtesies  of  life. 
They  are  apt  to  believe  that  other  people  look  down  on  them  as 
if  they  belonged  to  a  Helot  class.  They  may  therefore  be  tempted 
to  live  on  a  level  which  corresponds  with  the  low  estimation  in 
which  they  suppose  they  are  held.  On  the  other  hand,  if  they  are 
in  a  majority,  their  wounded  self-respect  may  occasionally  lead 
them  to  over-assert  themselves  at  the  expense  of  other  sections 
of  the  community.  In  either  case  their  very  nature,  as  human 
nature  always  does  in  similar  circumstances,  reaches  out,  however 
unconsciously,  for  some  compensation,  some  quid  pro  quo,  for 
the  slight  which  their  occupation  casts  upon  them  in  the  sight  of 
their  fellow-men.  In  the  one  set  of  circumstances  self-assertion 
or  class- assertion  may  supply  the  compensation  which  their  nature 
demands  ;  in  the  other  self-indulgence  may  afford  them  an  escape, 
temporary  though  it  be,  from  such  sense  of  degradation  as  may 
spring  from  their  environment  or  occupation.  Without  pursuing 


150    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

further  this  "  philosophy  of  clothes,"  I  wish  to  suggest  for  serious 
consideration  whether  the  "  colour  bar  "  of  the  mining  industry 
is  not  largely  responsible  for  that  spirit  of  sectionalism  and  of 
clannish  trade-consciousness  which  seems  to  exist  among  the 
miners  in  a  greater  degree  than  among  other  workers.  Their 
begrimed  condition  in  returning  from  work,  many  of  them  having 
to  travel  considerable  distances  in  doing  so,  mu&t  have  a  subtle 
but  potent  psychological  effect  in  making  them  feel  themselves  a 
class  apart,  with  interests  that  differ  from  those  of  all  others  around 
them.  This  is  something  different  from  the  ordinary  class-conscious- 
ness of  the  working-class  Socialist,  for  it  leads  to  over-emphasis 
of  the  interests  of  the  men  working  in  the  particular  industry  or 
even  in  the  particular  colliery,  and  to  the  ignoring  of  the  interests 
of  those  engaged  in  other  industries  or  even  other  collieries,  not  to 
mention  those  of  society  at  large.  It  is  a  narrow  trade-conscious- 
ness, not  the  class-consciousness  which  recognizes  the  solidarity 
of  all  labour.  In  this  way  miners  often  bring  upon  themselves 
a  great  deal  of  obloquy,  and  lose  the  support  of  public  opinion, 
by  pressing  in  an  unreasonable  manner — such  as  by  means,  of 
down-tools  strikes — claims  that  may  be  entirely  reasonable,  thereby 
giving  the  impression  that  they  are  indifferent  to  the  loss  and 
inconvenience  which  their  action  may  cause  to  workers  in  other 
industries  or  to  the  public  generally,  provided  they  succeed  in 
getting  what  they  want  for  themselves. 

If  the  "  colour  bar  "  were  strictly  confined  to  the  place  where 
the  industry  is  carried  on,  if  there  were  neither  excuse  nor  oppor- 
tunity for  thrusting  it  to  public  notice  in  the  streets,  there  would 
be  less  tendency  on  the  part  of  miners  to  regard  themselves  as 
a  class  apart,  there  would  be  less  false  antagonism  of  interests, 
and  a  less  self-regarding  social  consciousness  might  be  expected 
in  time  to  manifest  itself  in  their  ranks. 

The  fundamental  problem  confronting  us  to-day,  then, 
would  appear  to  be  that  of  eradicating  the  suspicion  and 
class  hatred  which  are  poisoning  our  civilized  life.  Once 
they  are  removed,  then  industrial  unrest  as  a  perennial 
source  of  anxiety  will  disappear  too.  In  the  case  of  an 
individual  mental  disorder  the  physician  finds  it  necessary, 
before  the  patient  can  achieve  that  frank  self-understand- 
ing and  transvaluation  of  personal  values  which  are  the 
essential  preliminary  of  a  cure,  to  penetrate  beneath 
the  symptoms  and  the  apparent  causes  of  the  trouble 
into  the  deeply  rooted  but  disturbed  emotional  life,  where 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  151 

the  fundamental  energies  of  his  being,  the  instincts,  act 
and  interact.  Let  us,  therefore,  in  the  manner  of  such 
a  physician  pass  to  a  short  consideration  of  man's  instinc- 
tive and  emotional  life  as  it  is  manifested  in  industry. 
A  study  of  this  aspect  of  our  problem  will  at  least  supply 
us  with  a  method  of  distinguishing  between  remedies  sug- 
gested which  are  worthless  and  those  which  may  prove 
of  enduring  value. 

ADDENDUM 

The  following  extract  from  a  daily  newspaper  of  August 
1919,  would  seem  to  suggest  that  the  concepts  of  abnormal 
psychology,  mental  conflict,  repression,  the  censor,  etc.,  will 
prove  equally  useful  if  applied  to  racial  problems  : — 

AMERICA'S  RACE  CONFLICT. 

"  The  deadly  feud  between  white  and  blacks,  which  has  been 
productive  of  so  much  bloodshed  in  Washington  and  Chicago  in 
recent  days,  appears  to  be  growing  in  intensity,"  says  the  Glasgow 
Herald. 

"  With  the  blacks  there  can  be  no  question  of  fusion.  Nominally 
they  are  American  citizens.  But  in  spite  of  constitutional  amend- 
ments, they  are  denied  political  rights.  The  Labour  Unions  will 
not  admit  them  to  membership.  The  colour  bar  is  immovably 
fixed  between  them  and  the  social  life  of  the  white  community. 
They  may  not  break  bread  in  public  with  man  or  woman  whose 
skin  is  of  a  different  hue  from  theirs,  and  miscegenation  and  its 
unhappy  products  are  abhorred  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 

"  In  effect  there  are  two  Americas.  There  is  the  America  which 
we  know  as  the  virile  cousin  of  all  the  races  of  Europe,  alert,  re- 
sourceful, generous,  enthusiastic,  brimful  of  political  ideals,  eager 
in  political  experiment,  more  than  half  willing  to  believe  that  it 
is  an  elect  people  whose  destiny  it  is,  as  befits  the  heir  of  all  the 
ages,  to  excel  the  grandest  achievements  of  the  human  family  in 
art,  literature,  and  science.  And  there  is  the  America  which  is 
unknown,  except  as  a  dark  background  to  the  energies  of  a  mighty 
nation,  the  America  twenty  millions  strong  or  thereabouts  of  which 
we  get  humorous  or  pathetic  glimpses  in  verse  or  story,  but  for  the 
rest  is  a  cipher  or  a  problem,  according  as  we  choose  to  throw  it 
an  indifferent  glance  or  pause  for  a  moment  to  look  at  the  impassive 
countenance  of  the  poor  drudge,  the  black  Cinderella  of  the  American 
household.  Well,  it  is  the  problem  and  not  the  cipher  that  is  going 
to  count." 


152    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

Strangely  enough,  since  the  above  was  written  and 
the  addendum  made,  the  news  has  come  from  America 
that  the  American  Federation  of  Labour  has  removed 
the  colour  bar  and  admitted  the  negro  to  trade  union 
membership.  This  is  a  step  of  great  significance  to  those 
who  believe  that  the  progressive  integration  of  conflicting 
interests  is  the  surest  way  to  a  fuller  life. 

REFERENCES 

HART,  BERNARD  :  The  Psychology  of  Insanity. 

JUNG,  C.  G. :   Analytical  Psychology. 

Low,  BARBARA  :  Psychoanalysis. 

McDouGALL,  WM.  :   The  Group  Mind. 

NICOLL,  M.  :   Dream  Psychology. 

RIVERS,  W.  H.  R. :  Instinct  and  the  Unconicious. 


§  2.  THE  SPRINGS  OF  CONDUCT 

For  more  than  one  reason  a  psychological  analysis  of 
the  motives  and  purposes  to  be  observed  functioning  in 
industry  is  desirable.  We  have  already  suggested  that 
the  cause  of  the  long-drawn-out  antagonism  between 
the  workers  and  their  masters  may  originate  in  the  con- 
flict caused  by  the  failure  of  the  latter  to  appreciate  to 
the  full  the  complexity  of  the  motives  which  impel  us  to 
industrial  activity ;  in  an  ignorance,  even,  in  some  cases 
of  the  fundamental  nature  of  driving  forces  which  animate 
our  simplest  endeavours.  The  analysis  which  we  need 
will  reveal  the  elementary  impulses  out  of  which  the  more 
complex  tendencies  are  developed. 

But  not  only  for  the  sake  of  a  deeper  understanding 
of  the  causes  of  unrest  do  we  need  such  an  analysis. 
Normal  industrial  activity  as  well  as  abnormal  activity 
must  be  carefully  studied,  for  the  great  problem  confronting 
the  modern  works  manager,  after  he  has  installed  in  his 
workshops  all  the  latest  mechanical  devices  and  the  newest 
methods  and  processes  of  manufacture  which  science  and 
skill  have  together  contrived,  is  to  discover  incentives 
which  will  set  in  full  operation  the  normal  energies  of  the 
workers.  Few  such  incentives  have  been  found  capable 
of  getting  men  to  keep  pace  continuously  with  the  possi- 
bilities of  machinery.  Even  when  no  serious  unrest 
exists,  management  is,  therefore,  dependent  upon  some 
sort  of  psychology,  systematized  or  unsystematized, 
for  a  knowledge  of  the  means  by  which  the  fundamental 
springs  of  human  activity  are  usually  released.  Indeed, 
in  this  connection  it  may  be  said  that  the  more  com- 

153 


154     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

pletely  fool-proof  machines  are  made,  thus  obviating  the 
need  for  ingenuity  and  alertness  on  the  part  of  the  worker, 
the  more  will  it  be  necessary  for  us  to  study  the  art  and 
science  of  galvanizing  into  lasting  efficiency  the  human 
beings  who  are  to  perform  these  processes  and  tend  these 
machines.  If,  then,  we  should  be  tempted  to  regard  man 
as  himself  nothing  but  a  machine,  just  a  little  more  intricate 
perhaps  than  those  to  which  he  is  frequently  an  almost 
automatic  attachment,  we  should  still  need  to  know  how 
to  release  his  energies  for  operation  and  maintain  them 
in  working  efficiency.  Thus,  to  discover  the  sovereign 
remedy  for  unrest,  and  to  find  incentives  able  to  keep 
men  steadily  at  work,  is,  therefore,  a  single  problem  of 
which  each  part  is  but  the  complementary  aspect  of  the 
other.  In  fact,  to  solve  satisfactorily  either  part  of  the 
problem  is  to  solve  the  whole. 

Many  systems  of  philosophy,  ethics,  politics,  commerce 
and  industry  have  been  based  upon  an  unsatisfactorily 
narrow  psychology,  which  has  inadequately  reflected  the 
wide  range  of  expression  humanly  possible.  We  must 
distrust  this  type  of  psychology.  It  will  be  recalled  by 
the  reader  that  a  complete  system  of  political  economy 
was  based  upon  the  assumption  that  man  in  all  his  actions 
is  motived  principally,  if  not  wholly,  by  the  simple  desire 
to  further  his  own  interests.  The  unrestrained  functioning 
of  self-interest,  as  we  see  it  in  the  baser  forms  of  com- 
petitive industry  and  commerce,  is  the  direct  outcome 
of  the  spread  of  this  sort  of  philosophy.  The  greatest 
intellectual  fillip  which  the  doctrine  received,  perhaps, 
was  administered  by  the  nineteenth-century  biologists 
when  they  took  up  the  Darwinian  hypothesis  with  the  zeal 
of  apostles,  and  set  out  to  prove  that  progress  could  univer- 
sally be  traced  back  to  the  all-dominating  struggle  for 
existence  which  has  always  ended,  and  will  end,  in  the 
"  survival  of  the  fittest."  "  Natural  selection  "  of  the 
fittest  was  popularly  supposed  to  result  invariably  in 
the  survival  of  individuals  who  were  stronger  or  cleverer 
or  more  fortunately  placed  than  their  fellow  creatures. 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  155 

A  strong  spice  of  self-interest  has  obviously  a  high 
survival  value,  if  this  be  true,  and  those  who  are  lacking 
in  the  quality  are  doomed  to  disappear  in  the  further 
evolution  of  the  race. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  supply  numerous  illustrations  for 
a  startling  and  terrifying  picture  of  nature  "  red  in  tooth 
and  claw  "  which  will  point  to  the  universality  of  the 
struggle  among  individuals  for  self-preservation.  But  all 
the  facts  do  not  point  in  this  direction.  Yet  throughout 
the  ages  those  men  and  women  who  have  sought  to  base 
their  philosophy  and  the  conduct  of  their  life  upon  other 
principles  have  as  often  as  not  been  derided  and  ridiculed 
as  cranks  by  the  majority  of  us.  There  have  been  thinkers, 
however,  who  have  felt  that  the  life-record  of  a  Buddha, 
or  a  Socrates,  or  a  Jesus,  or  a  Joan  of  Arc,  though  an 
apparent  testimony  to  the  falsity  of  the  current  opinion 
about  the  absolute  importance  of  self-interest,  could  hardly 
be  explained  as  wholly  expressive  of  a  delusion  or  some 
other  abnormality — and  this  seemed  to  be  the  only 
alternative — and  so  they  have  tried  to  show,  not  that  the 
principle  of  explaining  all  our  actions  by  reference  to 
self-interest  is  wrong,  but  that  virtue  and  heroism,  un- 
selfishness and  tender  regard  for  others  are  in  reality, 
when  properly  understood,  as  completely  motived  by 
self-interest  as  vice  and  cowardice.  In  this  way  they 
would  seek  to  explain  the  habitual  self-sacrifice  of  parents, 
the  righteous  indignation  of  the  prophet  against  those 
who  despoiled  the  widows  and  the  fatherless,  the  dying 
renunciation  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  or  that  last  walk  in  the 
Antarctic  darkness  by  Captain  Gates. 

Fortunately,  at  the  same  time  as  the  gospel  of  human 
salvation  through  struggle  and  self-interest  was  being 
trumpeted  abroad,  the  complementary  gospel  of  mutual 
aid  and  the  naturalness  of  co-operation  was  being  quietly 
re-written x  in  our  midst  by  a  Russian  exile,  Prince  Kropot- 
kin,  and  fellowship  and  solicitude  were  being  shown  even 
in  the  animal  world  to  be  as  natural  and  useful  as  self- 
1  See  Mutual  Aid, 


156    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

interest  in  determining  motivation.  Thus,  one  cannot 
possibly  account  for  the  voluntary  enlistment  of  five 
million  men  for  war  service — to  give  a  recent  example 
of  this  spirit  of  mutual  aid — by  ascribing  the  phenomenon 
wholly  to  the  promptings  of  individual  self-interest. 
Even  the  most  hardened  cynic  must  have  discovered  a 
few  cases  of  the  deliberate  choice  by  free  men  of  danger 
and  hardship  ;  while  to  gloss  over  these  instances  by 
calling  in  the  factors  of  impetuosity  and  imitation  as 
aids  to  explanation  when  self-interest  is  not  at  first  sight 
apparent  is  to  point  just  as  directly  to  the  presence  in 
human  nature  of  tendencies  which  are  as  likely  to  function 
in  animals  and  normal  men  and  women  as  the  more 
purely  self-regarding  instincts.  To-day,  then,  every  well- 
considered  psychology  has  room  for  both  self-interest  and 
self-sacrifice. 

As  another  example  of  the  irrational  tendency  to 
ascribe  the  whole  range  of  human  conduct  to  the  operation 
of  a  single  simple  motive  in  human  nature,  we  have  had 
a  new  psychology  from  Central  Europe.  Sigmund  Freud, 
a  medical  psychologist  of  unrivalled  insight  whom  we 
spoke  of  in  the  last  section  as  having  contributed  concepts 
of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  elucidation  of  abnormal 
mental  phenomena,  discovered  that  the  source  of  the 
vast  majority  of  the  neurotic  and  hysterical  symptoms 
of  the  people  who  consulted  him  as  a  specialist  was  clearly 
and  unmistakably  to  be  seen  in  a  starved  or  distorted 
sex  life.  Now,  what  is  true  of  the  abnormal  may  not  be 
wholly  and  invariably  true  of  the  normal ;  nevertheless, 
in  the  last  two  decades  we  have  witnessed  a  complete 
re-interpretation  and  re-valuation  of  the  entire  catalogue 
of  our  human  emotions  and  aspirations  by  uncritical 
followers  of  Freud,  who  have  tried  to  explain  them  as  the 
expression  not  of  a  general  desire  for  self-interest,  but  of 
the  single  specific  desire  for  sex-expression.  Darwin, 
Napoleon,  Shakespeare,  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Joan  of  Arc, 
the  saints  of  the  Christian  Church,  art,  music  and  literature, 
morality  and  religion,  have  all  been  exhibited  in  turn  as 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  157 

but  flowers  upon  the  all-too-human  tree  which  has  its 
roots  in  the  sexual.  The  tendency  to  over-emphasize  sex 
as  the  universal  explanatory  principle  of  normal  human 
behaviour  will  no  doubt  weaken  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  tendency  is  weakening  to  call  in  self-interest  to  our 
aid  whenever  we  have  a  human  problem  to  solve. 

Here,  again,  the  recent  world  war  has  provided  us  with 
an  illustration  of  what  is  likely  to  be  seen  eventually  as 
the  fuller  and  deeper  truth.  There  have  been  supplied 
for  our  attention  almost  countless  examples  of  mental 
derangement  due  not  so  much  to  thwarted  sex-life  as 
to  the  insufficiency  in  strain  and  emergency  of  the  will 
to  endure.  We  see  to-day  quite  clearly  that  in  such 
times  of  stress  we  are  apt  to  become  dominated  by  any 
or  all  of  the  primitive  emotions  and  instinctive  energies 
in  turn,  and  especially  by  fear,  which  has  great  disinte- 
grating force.  Individuals  who  are  educated  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word  are  usually  able  to  control  the  function- 
ing of  these  primitive  emotions  owing  to  their  habitual 
attention  to  ideas  and  objects  worthy  of  respect,  and  to 
their  habitual  concern  for  things  of  intellectual  and 
spiritual  value.  The  possibility  of  primitive  instinct 
functioning  healthily  and  safely  is  secured  most  satis- 
factorily through  the  possession  of  ideals  and  principles. 
But  continuous  application  to  tasks  involving  a  high 
degree  of  self-compulsion  induces,  as  we  have  seen,  a 
fatigue  in  the  higher  levels  of  the  mind,  and  in  the 
absence  of  strength  and  vigilance  on  the  part  of  the 
"  educated  self  "  the  "  primitive  self  "  bursts  through 
into  expression.  Painful  memories,  too,  surge  up  out  of 
the  forgotten  past,  while  the  anxieties  of  the  present  resist 
suppression.  At  such  times  reason  totters  on  her  throne. 

Neither  sex,  then,  nor  self-interest  is  the  complete 
explanatory  principle  we  seek,  though  they  frequently 
are  at  the  roots  of  much  of  cur  mental  trouble ;  it  is 
rather  in  the  failure  to  control  or  in  the  thwarting  or 
distorting  of  any  of  our  fundamental  innate  tendencies 
that  we  must  look  for  the  explanation  of  unrest. 


158    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

In  the  last  section  it  was  suggested  that  labour's  atti- 
tude to  traditional  scientific  management  was  to  a  large 
extent  not  consciously  but  unconsciously  determined, 
and  consequently  could  not  be  completely  represented 
in  the  form  of  logical  proportions  which  would  gain 
even  its  own  assent.  That  is  to  say  there  are  grounds 
of  action  which  may  never  become  either  rationalized 
or  consciously  recognized.  But  a  person  who  does  not 
deliberately  reason  out  his  actions  may  not  be  unin- 
telligent. The  motor-car  driver,  for  example,  who  sees 
a  child  rush  out  before  him  and  deftly  swerves  aside  to 
avoid  an  accident  acts  with  unquestionable  intelligence, 
but  he  does  not  consciously  reason  step  by  step,  "  There 
is  a  child — I  must  avoid  him — if  I  turn  my  wheel  a 
little  to  the  right  (or  left)  it  will  be  sufficient  to  take  me 
safely  past  him,"  and,  moreover,  the  driver's  own  account 
of  why  he  acted  as  he  did  would  probably  be  nothing 
like  an  accurate  description  of  what  really  took  place  in 
his  mind.  In  the  case  of  the  skilful  driver  such  an 
avoidance  of  collision  would  be  almost  automatic  and 
probably  devoid  of  any  mental  colouring. 

Similarly,  the  instinctive  oppositions  of  workers  to 
details  of  management,  and  of  management  to  labour 
organizations,  frequently  flash  out  uncontrollably  into 
expression,  and  only  afterwards  become  rationalized,  that 
is,  endowed  with  the  appearance  of  an  action  which  has 
been  deliberately  thought  out  step  by  step.  It  is  most 
essential,  however,  that  management  should  not  allow 
itself  to  think  that  any  action  not  carefully  planned  by 
the  workers  springs  from  the  promptings  of  impulses 
which,  because  they  are  unreasoned,  may  in  the  long 
run  safely  be  ignored.  The  modern  teaching  about 
human  nature  indicates  that  all  the  effort  of  which  we 
are  capable  depends  in  the  last  resort  on  the  unreasoned 
impulses  of  our  instinctive  nature.  These  supply  the 
dynamite  with  which  we  may  blast  our  way  through 
opposition  and  difficulty.  They  are  the  forces  which, 
when  our  mental  life  is  in  a  condition  of  anarchy,  drive 


INDUSTRIAL  UNREST  159 

us  from  pillar  to  post,  and  finally  into  hopelessness  and 
despair.  Yet,  nevertheless,  under  guidance  they  can  lead 
us  from  success  to  success.  Often  they  operate  uncon- 
sciously or  before  consciousness  can  intervene,  so  that 
they  easily  escape  detection  until  beyond  control ;  but 
a  manager  who  acts  as  though  what  cannot  consciously 
be  expressed  does  not  exist  will  be  thought,  as  we  grow 
more  enlightened,  just  as  incompetent  as  his  predecessor 
who  imagined  that  all  discontent  as  well  as  all  efficiency 
could  be  explained  by  reference  to  the  abnormal  or  normal 
functioning  of  the  single  motive  of  self-interest.  This 
judgment  will  perhaps  appear  harsh,  but  it  may  well 
be  that  the  continuance  of  our  civilization  in  the  days 
of  difficulty  before  us  will  depend  upon  a  subtle  acquaint- 
ance with  and  an  intimate  understanding  of  the  moods 
and  resentments  and  aspirations  of  labour,  all  of  which 
are  instinctively  rather  than  rationally  determined,  and, 
when  destructive  in  their  tendencies,  upon  a  masterly 
and  sagacious  anticipation  by  management  of  their  more 
impulsive  forms  of  expression. 


§3.   GREGARIOUSNESS    AND    GROUP    LIFE 

What  is  the  normal  development  of  the  instinctive 
tendencies  which  when  baulked  cause  so  much  individual 
and  social  unrest  ?  A  study  of  the  evolution  of  purposive 
behaviour  reveals  to  us  several  marked  stages,  though 
with  infinite  gradations  between  them.  In  the  presence  of 
effective  stimuli  the  lowest  forms  of  life  are  characterized 
by  two  fundamental  activities  of  an  almost  mechanical 
kind,  the  "  tropisms  "  of  attraction  and  repulsion.  But 
gradually  the  part  played  by  active  life  during  the  slow 
march  of  evolution  becomes  more  and  more  pronounced, 
and  after  a  while  intelligent  spontaneity  of  response  is 
to  be  seen  in  and  behind  the  mechanical  reactions. 
Attraction  and  repulsion,  that  is  to  say,  begin  to  wear  the 
first  marks  of  behaviour  and  merit  the  names  of  appetition 
and  aversion,  so  that  as  the  life  of  the  organism  increases 
in  point  of  quality  and  strength,  becoming  at  the  same 
time  both  diversified  and  more  and  more  integrated,  the 
environment  is  not  only  reacted  to,  but  it  also  becomes  an 
instrument  of  self-expression  and  purpose  ;  we  see  in  ad- 
dition to  the  "  fixed  end  "  an  ability  developed  to  pursue 
it  by  "  varying  means/'  Life  masters  the  performance, 
that  is  to  say,  of  a  variety  of  responses  and  methods  in 
its  appetitions,  and  to  a  lesser  extent  in  its  aversions. 

As  soon  as  the  developing  organism  becomes  aware 
that  it  is  not  alone  in  its  search  for  food,  and  that  other 
organisms  are  seeking  the  same  ends  as  itself  and 
endeavouring  to  avoid  the  same  dangers,  the  gregarious 
or  "  herd  "  tendencies  begin  to  take  form  and  develop  ; 
that  is,  we  may  observe  the  instinctive  reactions  becoming 

160 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  161 

to  some  extent  modified,  so  that  they  take  on  an  other - 
regarding  in  addition  to  a  s^/-regarding  character  ; 
under  the  influence  of  herd-consciousness,  therefore,  several 
further  differentiations  of  the  root-impulses  of  human 
nature  become  possible,  and  accordingly  take  place. 
Thus  gregariousness,  by  rendering  adaptation  to  environ- 
ment necessarily  more  complex,  determines  to  a  large 
extent  the  mental  growth  of  all  the  higher  animals  which 
come  under  its  influence.  Living  happily  among  others, 
that  is  to  say,  demands  greater  intelligence  than  living 
alone  ;  yet  animals  and  children,  and  men  and  women, 
grow  to  like  living  together,  and  normally  resent  being 
isolated,  in  spite  of  the  antagonisms  which  may  arise 
through  social  intercourse. 

It  is  the  herd-consciousness  which  is  dominantly  active 
when  the  young  child  cries  at  having  to  leave  the  warmth 
and  intimacy  of  the  fellowship  of  the  family  circle  and 
go  to  bed  by  himself,  and  it  is  much  the  same  resultant 
feeling  of  uneasiness  which  makes  tedious  the  night- 
watch  of  the  sentry  who  stands  alone  at  his  post  while 
his  comrades  are  either  indulging  in  revelry  or  are  soundly 
asleep.1  The  tremendous  growth  of  cities  and  the  in- 
creasing popularity  of  work  which  takes  people  into 
busy  centres  of  social  activity,  such  as  the  factory  and 
the  business  house,  is  not  wholly  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
lure  of  comparatively  high  wages  or  of  the  more  subtle 
seductiveness  of  town  pleasures.  The  countryside 
becomes  emptied  of  its  inhabitants  partly  because  of 
the  lack  of  housing  accommodation,  but  also  because  of 

1  The  reader  who  wishes  to  gain  a  fuller  idea  of  the  extent  to 
which  gregariousness  affects  our  mental  life  should  read  Mr.  Trotter's 
illuminating  book  on  The  Instincts  of  the  Herd  in  Peace  and  War. 
To  quote  a  relevant  passage :  "  Another  very  striking  piece  of  general 
evidence  of  the  significance  of  gregariousness  as  no  mere  late 
acquirement,"  he  says,  "  is  the  remarkable  coincidence  cf  its 
occurrence  with  that  of  exceptional  grades  of  intelligence,  or  the 
possibility  of  very  complex  reactions  to  environment.  It  can 
scarcely  be  regarded  as  an  unmeaning  accident  that  the  dog,  the 
horse,  the  ape,  the  elephant  and  man  are  all  social  animals,'1 

11 


162    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

the  decay  of  the  traditional  amenities  of  social  life  and 
the  absence  of  new  customs  and  amusements,  to  replace 
the  old,  capable  of  competing  successfully  with  the 
larger  opportunities  of  intercourse  offered  in  cities.  Un- 
fortunately, the  world-currents  of  modern  civilization  r 
whirl  by  and  leave  the  stagnant  countryside  unrefreshed. 
But  the  longing  for  the  more  primitive  life  of  the  herd 
and  its  enfolding  protection  cannot  altogether  be  sup- 
pressed. The  solitary  life  is  not  natural.  More  and 
more  we  are  finding  it  difficult  to  get  people  to  accept 
and  hold  for  any  length  of  time  occupations  which  auto- 
matically cut  them  off  from  social  life.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising, therefore,  that  the  lighthouse-keeper  spends  but 
a  few  years  in  his  splendid  isolation  before  taking  a  pension, 
or  that  town-bred  girls  rarely  become  general  servants, 
because,  in  addition  to  objections  they  might  raise  to 
a  life  of  "  servitude,"  the  lonely  life  of  the  kitchen,  in- 
tensified as  it  is  by  the  long  hours  which  must  be  spent 
there,  is  too  much  for  them.  To-day  practically  all  our 
servants  are  being  recruited  from  the  countryside,  where 
individuals  have  become  more  or  less  accustomed  to 
comparatively  uneventful  existence.  Yet  most  of  these 
gir's  grow  restive  after  a  time,  in  their  half-way  advance 
towards  complete  immersion  in  the  stream  of  social  life, 
and  are  drawn  off  ultimately  into  what  is  for  them  the 
more  stimulating  current  of  factory  life. 

There  is  no  fundamental  reason  why  an  industrial 
civilization  should  be  based  mainly  on  city  life.  It 
happened,  unfortunately,  in  this  country  that  the  In- 
dustrial Revolution  was  in  full  movement  before  transport 

1  "It  is  common  to  speak  of  the  temptations  of  great  cities  ; 
it  would  be  more  true  to  speak  of  the  infinite  uplift  provided  by 
the  spectacle  of  effort  all  round.  ...  To  pass  from  office  to  street, 
from  shop  to  theatre,  from  Westminster  to  the  Inns  of  Court,  is 
like  being  in  the  centre  of  a  magnetic  storm.  It  is  truly  the  greatest 
magnetic  storm  ever  experienced  on  this  planet,  this  city  life,  for 
the  electrical  flow  that  carries  our  messages  is  nothing  beside  the 
human  will-to-live  that  eddies  all  round  "  (M.  P.  Willcocks,  The 
of  Genius}. 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  163 

facilities  had  developed  to  any  extent.  To  be  nearer 
their  work  men  went  into  towns  to  live  who  might  have 
been  content  to  dwell  in  their  native  rural  surroundings, 
had  there  been  railways  to  take  them  backward  and  for- 
ward. It  may  be  that  in  the  future  there  will  be  an 
attempt  made  to  de-urbanize  communities  in  such  a 
way  that  men  and  women  can  live  and  work  together 
without  losing  touch  with  nature. 

Even  in  our  colonies,  where  there  is  perhaps  more 
individualism  and  independence  of  spirit  than  in  the 
home  country,  the  majority  of  the  people  live  in  towns. 
Thus  in  Australia  half  the  total  population  is  to  be  found 
in  five  cities.  In  the  United  Kingdom  75  per  cent,  of 
the  population  is  found  in  towns  and  urban  areas.  Workers 
in  new  lands  when  placed  beyond  the  pale  of  civilization 
find  the  tension  of  their  life  extremely  wearing  because 
so  unnatural,  and  feel  compelled  frequently  to  return  to 
the  towns,  there  to  undergo  a  period  of  violent  reaction, 
during  which  the  emotions  which  have  been  denied  an 
adequate  outlet  burst  through  in  the  most  primitive 
fashion  into  a  delirium  of  expression.  The  lonely  life 
of  the  night-watchman,  too,  is  usually  found  irksome  and 
falls  accordingly  to  the  lot  of  the  less  intelligent,  while 
until  recently  the  railway  signalman  has  had  to  spend 
far  too  many  hours  apart  from  his  fellow  men.  The 
writer  knew  well  a  wireless  operator  who  was  stationed 
on  a  lonely  islet  in  the  Pacific.  He  was  the  most  genial 
of  companions,  and  on  account  of  his  generous  and  con- 
siderate disposition  had  been  thoroughly  popular.  He 
married  an  American  girl  from  a  western  coastal  town, 
and  they  went  back  after  a  holiday  to  his  quarters.  At 
the  first  opportunity  the  girl  returned  to  her  mother  to 
stay  permanently  with  her,  declaring  that  she  could  never 
again  face  the  appalling  isolation  of  her  husband's  life. 

We  have  made  cruel  use  of  this  fear  of  loneliness  in 
organizing  our  prison  system,  so  that  it  was  not  difficult 
for  Mr.  Galsworthy  in  one  of  his  plays  1  to  give  us  a 

i  Justice. 


164    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

painful  description  of  the  bleak  horrors  of  solitary  con- 
finement in  a  prison  cell.  Our  very  figures  of  speech 
testify  to  the  unpleasantness  of  the  lonely  life.  We 
speak  when  we  have  been  neglected,  for  example,  of 
being  "  left  out  in  the  cold,"  and  we  long  for  the  "  warmth 
of  friendship  "  ;  we  describe  the  affection  which  unites 
men  and  women  as  sweet,  and  envy  which  divides  them 
as  bitter ;  moreover,  to  live  alone  is  hard  and  rough  on 
one,  whereas  to  live  among  friends  makes  one's  path  in 
life  smooth  ;  and  so  on. 

One  of  the  characteristic  forms  of  human  self- 
expression  natural  to  gregarious  life  is  conversation.  It 
is  desirable,  then,  that  when  people  work  together 
conversation  should  not  forcibly  be  suppressed.  A  keen 
interest  in  work  will  frequently  make  conversation  un- 
desirable, so  that  when  there  happens  to  be  an  undue 
amount  of  conversation  during  working  hours  the  problem 
of  getting  rid  of  it  should  be  tackled  indirectly  through 
attempts  to  increase  interest  in  work  rather  than 
directly  through  penalties  and  fines.  All  the  tactics  of 
management  should  be  planned  to  strengthen  the  "  com- 
mon purpose  "  which  unites  men  and  women  engaged 
together  at  the  same  work  :  it  is  fatal  to  centre  by  re- 
pressive measures  the  bond  of  the  workers'  unity  in  a 
sense  of  injury.  Indeed,  whenever  an  ordinary  mani- 
festation of  normal  human  instinct  is  met  by  manage- 
ment with  flat  opposition,  then  it  either  takes  on  a 
fighting  form  with  the  potential  support  of  all  the  emo- 
tional energy  of  the  personality,  or  it  sinks  back  defeated, 
leaving  the  workers  disturbed  and  irritated,  and  in  ripe 
condition,  to  change  the  metaphor,  for  falling  under  the 
influence  of  others  who  are  discontented. 

To  those  employers  who  find  mass-action  a  repulsive 
method  of  expressing  crude  animal  passion  one  ought 
to  say  that  there  is  no  reason  whatever  why  the  bond 
of  unity  among  the  workers  should  consist  of  a  common 
grievance.  Perhaps  there  is  room  and  occasion  for  a 
differentiation  of  the  meanings  of  the  words  crowd,  mob, 


INDUSTRIAL  UNREST  165 

group  and  community  to  express  the  idea  that  what 
unites  people  varies  according  to  the  occasion.  A  crowd, 
as  most  observers  would  agree,  is  a  loosely-knit-together 
heterogeneous  collection  of  individuals  with  a  variety 
of  interests,  but  a  single  commonly-experienced  emotion 
will  convert  them  instantaneously  into  a  mob.  A  group, 
however,  is  the  crowd  united  not  by  crude  feeling,  but 
through  devotion  to  a  common  interest  or  principle, 
so  that  emotion  in  the  group  is  healthy  and  the  end  pur- 
sued calmly  and  deliberately  chosen.  In  the  community, 
amid  a  variety  of  conflicting  interests,  there  is  still  a  real 
bond  of  unity,  and  that  bond  is  the  common  culture  and 
civilization.  Thus  the  community  is  more  complex  in 
its  unity  than  the  group.  Those  who  have  entered  in- 
timately into  the  common  experiences  of  the  group  and 
of  the  community  usually  find  the  satisfactions  of  mob- 
life  ephemeral.  For  the  manager,  then,  who  dislikes 
the  mob,  the  way  to  counteract  its  evil  influences  is  to 
organize  groups  of  various  kinds  within  his  works,  or 
better,  to  encourage  his  workers  to  join  suitable  clubs, 
circles  or  societies  outside.  The  impulse  to  gregariousness 
will  not  discharge  itself  safely  and  completely  in  the 
annual  outing,  though  it  will  find  great  satisfaction  there- 
by. The  gymnasium,  the  sports  clubs,  the  reading  and 
sewing  circles,  the  dramatic,  musical,  and  debating 
societies  and  the  educational  classes  will  alone  in  the 
long  run  draw  the  vitality  from  the  mob-activity,  and 
give  their  participants  that  sense  of  personal  worth  and 
responsibility  which  stabilizes  emotion  and  tranquillizes 
life. 

It  is  the  herd-feeling  which  is  the  cementing  agency 
responsible  for  labour  solidarity,  and  it  is  because  the 
tendency  to  impulsive  and  unthinking  group  action  is 
strongest  among  those  who  feel  that  they  most  need 
protection  that  Taylor  and  his  less  discriminating 
followers  of  the  early  scientific  management  movement 
were  wrong  in  ignoring  it  or  trying  to  break  it  down 
when  it  took  the  form  of  unionism.  In  this  country 


166    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

we  have  rightly  accepted  even  organized  and  deliberate 
group  action  in  the  form  of  Trade  Unionism  as  a  natural 
and  healthy  thing,  and  we  have  rightly  decided  that  it 
must  be  utilized  and  developed  rather  than  opposed. 

It  is  to  the  fear,  too,  of  being  cut  off  from  their  fellows, 
which  few  can  withstand,  that  we  must,  trace  the  support 
given  to  a  strike  policy.  How  often  do  we  meet  the 
individual  railwayman  or  the  miner  on  strike  who  declares 
that  he  is  not  altogether  in  favour  of  what  his  comrades 
are  doing,  though  he  must  support  them,  since  it  is  distinctly 
unpleasant  to  be  called  a  blackleg.  We  are  apt  to  argue 
from  this  sort  of  example  that  the  "  wicked  agitator  " 
is  at  work  persuading  men  to  strike  against  their  will. 
Such  explanations  are  ludicrous.  As  a  conscious  person- 
ality, the  worker  may  attempt  to  rationalize  his  awkward 
position  in  the  face  of  public  criticism  by  a  pretence  of 
lukewarmness  and  even  believe  himself  in  his  apology, 
but  what  usually  motives  strikes  is  no  rational  conscious 
conduct,  but  the  unconscious  forces  of  group  solidarity. 
In  the  above  example  we  have  a  distinctly  pretty  illus- 
tration of  the  behaviour  of  persons  who,  belonging  to 
more  than  one  group,  fear  losing  kinship  with  any  one 
of  them  ;  consciously,  therefore,  they  fraternize  with 
one  (the  community),  and  unconsciously  with  another 
(the  labour  union)  ;  but  in  times  of  stress  the  stronger 
unconscious  sympathies  are  always  on  the  side  of  rebellion, 
as  a  study  of  the  abnormal  has  led  us  to  expect. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  in  this  connection,  too,  that 
decisions  to  mass  action  are  frequently  taken  to-day  at 
big  meetings  where,  because  they  are  positive  in  nature, 
suggestions  of  the  possibility  of  giving  vent  to  grievance 
through  a  strike  generally  spread  with  almost  electrical 
suddenness  and  force.  Reason  stands  little  chance  of 
holding  its  own  when  grievances  backed  by  strong  emo- 
tion are  given  an  outlet  into  expression.  The  speech  of 
Mark  Antony  in  Shakespeare's  Julius  Ocesar  has  no 
doubt  been  well  pondered  by  every  successful  demagogue 
who  understands  how  much  easier  it  is  to  work  upon  the 


INDUSTRIAL  UNREST  167 

feelings  of  individuals  in  crowds  than  upon  the  same 
individuals  singly.  In  all  industrial  disputes  (and  in  all 
political  elections)  we  should  get  a  truer  reflection  of 
the  intelligence  and  reason  of  voters  if  mass  meetings, 
public  appeals,  and  canvassing  were  dropped  entirely  for 
two  or  three  days  before  the  individual  voters'  decisions 
were  made.  The  increasing  use  of  the  ballot  in  connec- 
tion with  a  strike  policy  is,  however,  even  under  the 
worst  conditions  an  improvement  on  the  method  of 
leaving  the  decision  to  delegates  who  are  overwrought 
by  the  excitement  of  interviews  and  debates  and  public 
meetings,  and  consequently  find  a  clear  positive  decision 
in  favour  of  a  strike  a  real  relief. 

It  is  to-day,  then,  a  truism  that  man's  mental  reactions 
to  his  work  cannot  be  completely  explained  if  he  is  regarded 
merely  as  a  self-contained  unit.  In  seeking  to  further 
industrial  efficiency  we  shall  be  forced  to  take  into  con- 
sideration the  important  fact  that,  even  as  an  individual, 
the  worker  can  only  be  satisfactorily  studied  in  connection 
with  the  web  of  relations  in  which  he  lives  and  moves. 
Throughout  history  man  has  always  found  his  chief  means 
of  self-expression  in  work  that  is  of  social  value,  and  has 
never  lived  happily  apart  from  some  definite  group  to 
which  he  could  voluntarily  yield  homage,  and  from  which 
he  might  derive  emotional  satisfaction  and  inspiration. 
In  the  past  it  has  been  mainly  through  kinship  groups, 
through  church  or  political  party,  through  territorial 
or  occupational  association  that  he  has  drunk  deep  of 
the  fuller  and  more  enduring  pleasures  which  are  to  be 
found  in  group-life.  To-day  the  trade  union,  even  if 
it  does  not  provide  the  satisfactions,  is  at  least  the  group 
in  which  the  largest  number  of  men  and  women  partici- 
pate. As  McDougall  says,1  "  almost  the  only  condition 
of  wide  and  general  influence  that  continues  in  times  of 
peace  to  foster  group  self-consciousness  is  occupational 
association." 

Not  every  kind  of  group  association  is  ennobling,  how- 
1  The  Group  Mind. 


168    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

ever.     It  has  frequently  been  observed  that  individuals 
of   marked   intelligence   who   enter   wholeheartedly   into 
the  life  of  crowds  often  become  brutalized  and  degraded. 
Groups  which  are  lacking  in  organization  are  frequently 
goaded   by   oppression   or   incited   by    demagogues   into 
violently  impulsive  action  characterized  by  the  coarsest 
of   emotions,   so   that   they  commit   excesses  impossible 
to  the  unit  members  acting  separately.     Before  the  era 
of   our   modern   trade   unions    such    mob-action   rinding 
expression    in    sabotage    and    outrages   was    the    usual 
accompaniment     of    industrial    disputes.     Through    the 
influences  set  in  operation  through  well-organized  trade 
groups  such  fickle  emotionalism  as  characterizes  the  mob 
may  be  moderated  and  refined.      Group-life  at  its  best, 
that  is    to  say,  stabilizes   and    civilizes   the    individual. 
Those  who  would  make  an  end  of  trade  unions  forget 
that  without  them  we  should  regress  in  times  of  indus- 
trial crisis  to  unregulated  mob-action  of  the  worst  kind. 
There   are   five   conditions,    according   to    McDougall,1 
which  favour  the  progressive  development  and  integra- 
tion of  the  mental  life  of  the  unorganized  crowd,  and  in 
so  far  as  these  may  here  be  exemplified  by  the  conduct  of 
our  English  trade  unions  we  may  summarize  them : — 

1.  In  the  first  place  some  degree  of  continuity  of  exist- 
ence of    the  group  is  necessary  if  fickleness  of   impulse 
is  to  be  overcome. 

Now  the  authors  of  The  History  of  Trade  Unionism* 
define  a  trade  union  as  "  a  continuous  association  of  wage- 
earners  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  or  improving  the 
conditions  of  their  employment."  This  conscious  develop- 
ment of  a  purpose  is  the  ground  of  continuity,  and  the 
basis  of  all  the  other  conditions  of  progressive  growth. 

2.  In   addition,  says   McDougall,  some   adequate   idea 
of  the  group  must  exist  in  the  minds  of  its  members,  and 
this  must  be  coupled  with  the  development  of  the  senti- 
jnent  of  group-loyalty. 

There  were  no  trade  unions  of  workers  of  a  permanent 
«  The  Group  Mind.  *  S.  and  B.  Webb. 


INDUSTRIAL  UNREST  169 

nature  before  the  epoch  of  the  Industrial  Revolution, 
because  journeymen  had  not  accustomed  themselves  to 
think  of  the  gulf  between  master  and  man  as  impassable 
for  the  majority.  The  division  between  the  members 
of  the  community  was  more  of  a  trade  and  less  of  a  class 
division — it  was  vertical  rather  than  horizontal ;  but 
with  the  divorce  of  interest  effected  by  the  factory  system 
between  the  manual  workers  and  their  capitalist  employers, 
and  the  gradual  realization  of  the  former  that  they  could 
no  longer  hope  to  rise  into  the  ranks  of  the  employers 
as  was  previously  the  normal  course,  class  consciousness 
became  dominant.  "  Whilst  industrial  oppression  belongs 
to  all  ages,  it  was  not  until  the  changing  conditions  of 
industry  had  reduced  to  an  infinitesimal  chance  the 
journeyman's  prospect  of  becoming  himself  a  master 
that  we  find  the  passage  of  ephemeral  combinations  into 
trade  societies."  x  The  same  authors  tell  us  that  only 
in  those  industries  in  which  the  worker  has  ceased  to 
be  concerned  in  the  profits  of  buying  and  selling,  which 
would  bind  them  in  interest  to  their  employers,  can  effective 
and  stable  trade  unions  be  established.  The  idea,  then, 
of  the  trade  union  is  the  inevitable  product  of  the  divorce 
of  interest  between  employers  and  employed.  This 
idea  is  frequently  enforced  now  through  association  in 
the  workers'  minds  with  sick  benefits  and  badges  and 
frequent  meetings  and  publications  ;  indeed,  it  is  difficult 
to-day  for  a  worker  to  forget  that  he  is  a  unionist. 

3.  Another  condition  favourable  to  the  development 
of  the  trade  union  group  is  its  interaction  with  other 
groups  swayed  by  different  aims  and  ideals. 

Conflict  and  rivalry  are  notoriously  effective  in  pro- 
moting group-consciousness.  Whereas  the  economists 
are  continually  reminding  us  that  the  interests  of  all 
classes  are  fundamentally  the  same,  party  organizers 
who  wish  to  develop  party  feeling  never  tire  of  emphasiz- 
ing the  conflict  of  interests  between  their  own  groups  and 
others.  It  is  because  conflict  is  essential  to  the  growth 
i  S.  and  B.  Webb,  op.  cit. 


170    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

of  c/flss-consciousness  that  trade  union  officials  fear  wel- 
fare work,  Whitley  councils,  and  co-partnership  schemes. 
These  tend  to  obscure  the  clear-cut  lines  between  class 
and  class.  And  just  as  the  kings  of  old  united  their 
peoples  by  embarking  upon  foreign  wars,  so  a  strike 
to-day  is  not  always  unwelcome  to  the  unionist  as  a  means 
of  strengthening  labour  solidarity  when  it  shows  signs 
of  weakening.1 

But  it  is  not  wholly  to  the  efforts  of  the  labour  union 
official  that  the  existence  of  class-consciousness  must 
be  ascribed.  Both  Parliament  and  employers  have 
played  no  inconsiderable  part  in  evoking  it.  Up  till 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  it  was  customary 
for  both  employers  and  employed  to  petition  Parliament 
for  redress  when  suffering  from  a  grievance,  and  to  feel 
certain  of  securing  some  measure  of  justice.  Parliament, 
as  we  have  said,  acted  as  the  conscience  and  reason  of 
the  community,  and  was  the  vitalizing  force  responsible 
for  its  unity  and  well-being.  With  the  steady  develop- 
ment of  the  Industrial  Revolution,  however,  it  found  the 
task  of  maintaining  a  dispassionate  attitude  impossible, 
and  drifted  instead  into  a  policy  of  laissez  faire.  It 
surrendered  its  duty  of  unifying  and  nourishing  national 
interests  to  those  able  to  manipulate  its  machinery. 
Class  legislation  followed.  The  Combination  Laws  of 

1  S.  and  B.  Webb  (op.  cit.)  quote  from  the  narrative  of  a  trade 
unionist  who  sketches  the  career  of  a  typical  union  official :  "  Within 
the  next  three  months  the  Branch  Secretary  finds  that  all  that 
glitters  is  not  gold.  At  least  half  of  those  who  joined  at  the  begin- 
ning have  lapsed,  and  at  times  the  branch  looks  like  collapsing 
altogether.  But  by  dint  of  much  hard  work  .  .  .  the  branch  is 
kept  together  until  a  time  of  prosperity  for  the  trade  arrives.  This 
is  the  Secretary's  opportunity  to  make  or  break  his  Lodge,  and 
being  a  wise  man  he  takes  it.  He  puts  a  resolution  on  the  agenda 
paper  for  the  next  Lodge  meeting  in  favour  of  an  advance  in  wages, 
a  reduction  of  hours,  or  both.  The  next  meeting  carries  it  unani- 
mously, and  it  at  once  becomes  the  talk  of  the  whole  trade  in  the 
town."  The  writer  goes  on  to  describe  the  stages  by  which  the 
strike  which  is  to  revive  the  branch  is  then  brought  about. 


INDUSTRIAL  UNREST  171 

1799-1800  made  co-operation  to  improve  working  condi- 
tions a  crime,  and  twenty  years  of  persecution  followed. 
Trade  unions  were  forced  to  become  secret  societies 
with  no  open  recognized  means  of  self-expression,  and 
consequently  were  driven  to  find  satisfaction  in  sabotage 
and  assault.  (In  1834  seven  farm  labourers  were  trans- 
ported for  belonging  to  a  trade  union.)  Thus  the  emotion 
which  might  have  become  the  driving  force  moving  the 
wheels  of  progress  was  short-circuited  into  revolutionary 
sentiment  of  the  most  dangerous  kind.  Not  till  1871  were 
legal  recognition  and  a  status  granted  to  trade  unions. 

4.  A  fourth  condition  favourable  to  the  development 
of  a  marked  group-consciousness  is  the  existence  of  a 
body  of  traditions,  customs  and  habits  determining  the 
relations  of  the  members  to  each  other  arid  to  the  group 
as  a  whole. 

We  have  already  indicated  our  belief  in  the  fact  that 
the  attitude  of  organized  labour  to-day  is  largely  what 
it  is  owing  to  the  influence  of  its  past.  The  persecution 
and  victimization  of  the  early  unionists  are  still  power- 
fully (if  only  subconsciously)  active  in  determining  the 
labour  point  of  view.  A  group  consists  of  its  unit  mem- 
bers, but  it  has  the  power  by  virtue  of  its  well-established 
traditions  of  moulding  their  thoughts  and  aspirations 
in  accordance  with  the  Spirit  of  its  past.  Indeed,  the 
attempt  to  modify  any  age-long  custom  or  habit  is  usually 
painful  and  often  abortive.  The  young  unionist  finds 
the  customs,  habits,  and  traditions  of  the  trade  group 
accepted  to  the  full  by  his  elders,  and  mass-suggestion 
and  the  dignity  and  prestige  of  age,  in  addition,  impel 
him  to  accept  them  too.  It  is  rare  only  that  the  new- 
comer can  maintain  for  any  considerable  length  of  time 
a  critical  attitude  towards  what  his  superiors  and  elders 
respect,  and  the  initiation  ceremony  which  frequently 
precedes  membership  is  designed  to  induce  respect  of 
the  same  kind  in  the  most  self-centred  of  individuals. 

5.  The  last  condition  enumerated  by  McDougall  as 
favourable  to  the  development  of  a  high  degree  of  group- 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

consciousness  is  the  existence  of  some  form  of  organization 
involving  the  differentiation  and  specialization  of  func- 
tions among  the  members. 

A  certain  degree  of  intelligence  on  the  part  of  the 
workers  is  called  for  before  the  rudiments  of  trade  union 
organization  can  be  established.  If  oppression  alone 
could  engender  group-consciousness  and  maintain  it 
as  a  permanent  thing,  then  we  should  find  trade  unions 
fast  appearing  in  history  among  the  worst-paid  workers. 
These,  however,  almost  always  lack  the  mental  virility 
and  the  intelligence  necessary  to  organized  action,  so 
that  it  is  the  aristocracy  of  labour  which  is  always  fore- 
most in  aggressive  combination. 

The  existence  of  organization  prevents  the  rapid  ex- 
haustion of  enthusiasm  which  has  followed  many  of  the 
"  movements  "  of  the  past.  Examples  of  this  kind  of 
phenomenon  occurred  in  1833-4,  I^73~4>  and  1889-90 
in  the  industrial  world.  In  these  years  sudden  expansions 
of  group-feeling  took  place  among  the  workers  ;  new 
members  were  enrolled  in  the  unions  by  the  thousand, 
but  no  means  of  canalizing  their  feeling  into  useful  activity 
had  been  developed,  and  the  new  converts  fell  away 
from  the  faith  almost  as  rapidly  as  they  had  rushed  to 
embrace  it. 

The  nineteenth  century  witnessed  the  gradual  building 
up  of  trade  union  organization,  accelerated  eventually 
by  the  appointment  of  full-time  officials.  According  to 
the  authors  of  The  History  of  Trade  Unionism }  from  1843 
onwards  there  was  a  shifting  of  the  leadership  of  the 
unions  from  the  casual  enthusiast  and  irresponsible  agitator 
to  a  class  of  permanent  organizers  selected  for  their 
administrative  capacity  and  business  acumen. 

It  is  for  the  future  to  decide  how  far  trade  unions  will 
continue  to  move  along  the  path  of  sectionalism.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  our  further  industrial  progress  may  be 
ensured  not  through  the  deliberate  destruction  of  the 
powers  of  the  trade  unions,  but  through  a  harmonization 
of  the  interests  of  the  unions,  of  the  employers,  and  of 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  173 

the  community.  Men  may  belong  to  more  than  one 
group  provided  the  aims  of  each  do  not  clash,  and  a  much 
richer  and  more  enduring  satisfaction  is  to  be  obtained 
from  the  integration  of  conflicting  tendencies  than  by 
the  abolition  of  any  one  of  them.  At  present,  while  each 
industrial  group  is  developing  a  consciousness  of  itself  in 
its  individual  members,  usually  there  is  but  a  "  conscious 
minority  "  which  acts  for  the  whole,  and  in  so  doing 
usually  interprets  only  the  aspirations  of  -the  particular 
group,  and  not  the  wider  purposes  which  it  possesses  in 
common  with  other  groups.  The  group  of  which  we 
habitually  feel  ourselves  to  be  members  determines  our 
point  of  view.  If  that  view  is  sectional,  then  the  value  of 
bringing  it  into  relation  with  others  must  be  demon- 
strated. Solidarity  cannot  be  achieved  by  the  simple 
process  of  obliterating  objecting  parties.  Unless,  then,  we 
wish  to  return  to  the  days  of  mob-violence  and  blind 
unreasoning  rebellion,  we  must  assiduously  forward  rather 
than  thwart  the  development  of  the  labour  unions  :  they 
are  the  cerebrating  centres  of  working-class  organization. 

REFERENCES 

HAMMOND,    J.    L.    and    B. :    The    Skilled    Labourer;     The    Town 

Labourer. 

McDoucALL,  WM.  :  The  Group  Mind. 
TROTTER,  W. :  Instincts  of  the  Herd  in  Peace  and  War, 
WEBB,  S.  and  B. :  History  of  Trade  Unionism, 


§  4.   THE   INSTINCTS   IN   INDUSTRY' 

The  instincts  of  which  we  have  heard  so  much  since 
Prof.  McDougall  gave  us  his  masterly  presentation  of 
their  structure  and  function  in  the  Introduction  to  Social 
Psychology  do  not  act,  as  the  uninstructed  student  might 
suppose,  from  a  consideration  of  our  metaphors,  inde- 
pendently of  one  another  and  as  self-contained  units  of 
energy  which  habitually  master  the  total  personality 
in  turn  ;  they  are  to  be  regarded  rather  as  racial  habits 
of  reaction  to  the  situations  of  life  which  have  proved 
serviceable  and  been  retained  by  the  species  in  possession 
of  them.*  Their  value  for  man  lies  in  their  use  as  a 
basis  for  further  and  more  complex  habits.  A  study 
of  abnormal  mental  phenomena  has  laid  bare  an  important 
fact  which  throws  light  upon  their  continued  appearance 
among  human  beings  in  an  undeveloped  form. 

Progressive  adaptation  to  the  situations  of  life  calls 
for  an  increasing  integration  of  effort  and  intelligence 
which  taxes  us  to  the  utmost,  so  that  in  the  face  of 
exceptional  difficulty,  or  even  under  ordinary  conditions 
if  we  are  "  below  form  "  or  emotionally  disturbed,  we 

1  This  is  also  the  title  of  a  suggestive  book  by  Mr.  Ordway  Tead. 
Our  opening  paragraph  indicates  the  extent  to  which  we  differ 
from  Mr.  Tead  in  our  views  of  the  subject  under  treatment. 

3  McDougall,  Social  Psychology,  p.  29,  defines  instinct  as  "  an 
inherited  or  innate  psycho-physical  disposition  which  determines 
its  possessor  to  perceive,  and  to  pay  attention  to,  objects  of  a 
certain  class,  to  experience  an  emotional  excitement  of  a  particular 
quality  upon  perceiving  such  an  object,  and  to  act  in  regard  to  it 
in  a  particular  manner,  or  at  least  to  experience  an  impulse  to 
such  action." 

174 


INDUSTRIAL  UNREST  175 

are  apt  to  relapse  to  former  and  lower  levels  of  efficiency. 
This  phenomenon  was  called  by  Jung,  who  first  noted  it, 
regression.  Thus,  when  a  Devonshire  farmer  (who  in 
spite  of  great  difficulties  had  educated  himself  and  among 
other  things  ridded  himself  of  his  local  dialect)  accidentally 
pricked  his  hand  in  a  gorse  bush  while  discoursing  to  a 
visitor  in  his  best  English  on  the  glories  of  Dartmoor, 
he  exclaimed  "  Damn  the  vuzz  \"  So,  too,  in  learning 
an  act  of  skill  we  are  apt  at  times,  especially  if  we  allow 
ourselves  to  become  annoyed  at  our  lack  of  speedy  pro- 
gress, to  settle  down  to  making  mistakes  long  since 
conquered.  (See  also  p.  37.)  These  are  particular  forms 
of  the  general  phenomenon  of  regression.  In  the  language 
of  a  psycho-analyst  like  Jung  life  regresses  to  a  more 
"  infantile  "  form  of  behaviour  when  reality  puts  up  too 
strong  an  obstacle  to  its  progress,  and  in  so  doing  it  takes 
the  inward  path  of  memory  rather  than  the  outward 
and  forward  path  of  perception,  re-animating  the  older 
channels  of  expression,  revivifying  past  emotions,  and 
re-issuing  in  racial  impulse.  Now,  racial  habit  is  more 
primitive  than  reasoned  conduct,  so  that  the  instinctive 
reactions  in  their  crude  forms  naturally  appear  when 
consciousness,  either  through  sheer  inability  or  because 
otherwise  engaged,  cannot  design  more  effective  forms  of 
behaviour,  and  so  regresses. 

But  the  life-energy  still  courses  in  part  in  the  old  channels 
even  when  behaviour  is  rational :  but  the  outlet  into 
expression  is  notably  improved  and  refined.  It  is  essential, 
therefore,  to  the  preservation  of  health,  sanity  and  vigour 
that  the  original  channels  through  which  the  main  currents 
run  are  not  in  any  way  blocked.  Development  depends 
upon  free  and  varied  expression,  and  in  so  far  as  modern 
industry  prevents  this  it  is  either  dangerously  diverting 
or  damming  up  a  flood  which  will  eventually  burst  through 
its  barriers  and  destroy  what  we  treasure  most. 

The  primary  instincts  which  we  shall  deal  with  in 
this  section  are  the  simpler  instincts  of  pugnacity  (and 
its  more  playful  form  of  rivalry),  ownership,  tenderness, 


176     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

self-assertion  (or  self -display)  and  self-abasement.  Other 
instincts — sex,  curiosity,  and  constructiveness — we  sjiall 
notice  later. 

Like  many  other  men,  F.  W.  Taylor  realized  clearly  the 
value  of  the  support  of  instinct  in  attempts  at  increasing 
efficiency.  Unfortunately,  he  concentrated  his  attentions 
upon  the  impulse  of  rivalry  (according  to  McDougall 
a  differentiation  of  self -display  and  pugnacity),  for  by 
so  doing  he  could  not  only  increase  individual  efficiency, 
but  also  get  rid  of  the  monster  which  so  often  threatens 
management  in  the  shape  of  mass-action.  Now,  to  cul- 
tivate one  instinct  exclusively  is  to  endanger  the  mental 
synthesis  which  depends  on  the  balanced  development 
of  all  the  instincts. 

Those  men  and  women  who  come  into  close  contact 
with  some  of  the  more  pathological  forms  of  the  impulse 
of  rivalry  as  they  are  to  be  seen  at  their  worst  in  the 
meaner  types  of  competitive  commerce  and  industry, 
where  they  often  find  expression  in  practices  which  are 
subversive  of  morality  and  social  order,  are  frequently 
inclined  to  argue  for  the  complete  extrusion  of  the  impulse 
from  public  life.  They  frequently  construct  in  their 
imaginative  moments  fantastic  ideals  of  a  co-operative 
commonwealth  in  a  golden  age  that  is  to  be  when  com- 
mercial competition  will  no  longer  exist.  To  aim  at  an 
improved  society  is  good,  but  it  is  impossible,  even  if 
;it  may  be  desirable,  to  root  out  entirely  from  human 
nature  a  fundamental  impulse.  Moreover,  there  is  now 
available  enough  evidence  which  can  be  drawn  from  our 
experience  of  crime  and  drunkenness  and  insanity  to 
demonstrate  the  futility  of  running  counter  to  certain 
native  impulses.  To  neglect  to  cultivate  a  weak  native 
tendency  leads  to  its  decay  ;  to  act  as  though  a  strong 
one  does  not  exist  or  to  seek  to  repress  it  is  to  rouse  up 
an  enemy  against  oneself. 

If,  therefore,  anything  must  be  said  in  disparagement 
of  the  Taylor  differential  wage  system,  and  other  premium 
plans  of  a  similar  kind,  it  is  not  because  they  are  altogether 


INDUSTRIAL  UNREST  177 

bad  on  account  of  their  appeal  to  one's  selfish  desire  to 
excel  above  one's  fellows  by  whatever  means  are  available, 
but  because  in  so  many  cases  they  ot^-emphasize  this 
particular  desire,  and  ignore  other  motives  which  certainly 
ought  to  be  excited  into  functioning.1 

The  acquisitive  or  ownership  instinct  which  is  mani- 
fested in  those  of  our  activities  designed  to  give  us 
possession  or  control  of  such  things  as  bring  some  form 
of  satisfaction  is  also  a  powerful  incentive  in  us,  but  it 
does  not  function  solely  through  the  desire  for  wealth. 
Almost  every  attempt  at  practical  "  communism  "  has 
broken  down  in  the  past  through  the  failure  on  the  part 
of  an  unregenerate  few  to  deal  rationally  with  their 
desire  for  individual  ownership  of  the  things  which  have 
been  declared  "  common."  The  failure  of  bureaucracy  in 
our  own  time  can  be  partly  accounted  for  by  the  strength 
of  the  desire  in  all  of  us  for  personal  possession  and  material 
advantage,  and  the  relative  weakness,  in  case  of  a  con- 
flict of  motives,  of  the  desire  for  the  public  good.  In 
the  organization  of  a  public  service  or  a  big  business  we 
shall  need,  till  the  race  as  a  whole  is  highly  educated, 
to  employ  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent  as  well  as  the  inno- 
cence of  the  dove  ;  we  must  contrive  situations,  that  is  to 
say,  in  which  paths  of  "  low  resistance  "  to  virtue  are 
created,  so  that  it  will  be  to  the  advantage  of  each  and  all 
to  see  that  justice  is  done.2  For  this  reason  the  Gantt 
bonus  system  which  made  it  advantageous  for  the  gang- 

1  Though  the  impulse  to  rivalry,  as  it  is  found  in  the  strongest 
individuals,  is  a  powerful  lever  frequently  utilized  by  the  manager 
intent  on  speeding  up  work,   the  feeble-mindedness  of  the  low- 
grade  worker  who  is  lacking  in  control  of  the  impulse  is  equally 
exploited  for  the  same  ends.     "  Strong  in  the  back  but  thick  in 
the  head  "  is  a  phrase  often  applied  to  this  type  of  worker  by  his 
associates.     See  also  footnote,  p.   104. 

2  "  The  assumption    that  the    stimulus   of   imminent   personal 
want  is  either  the  only  spur  or  a  sufficient  spur  to  productive  effort 
is  a  relic  of  a  crude  psychology  which  has  little  warrant  either  in 
past  history  or  in  present  experience  "  (Tawney,  The  Sickness  of  an 
Acquisitive  Society). 

12 


178    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

boss  to  help  his  workmen,  and  so  benefit  not  only  himself 
but  also  every  one  else  concerned,  is  the  type  of  situa- 
tion which  we  should  aim  at  standardizing.  The  crown- 
ing disgrace  of  any  society  is,  as  it  has  often  been  said, 
that  its  citizens  find  the  wages  of  virtue  less  than  those 
of  vice. 

In  conjunction  with  another  native  tendency,  the 
protective  instinct,  it  is  the  instinct  of  ownership  which 
leads  workers  to  identify  themselves  in  an  intimate 
manner  with  their  tools,  equipment,  and  machinery. 
One  is  more  confident  in  dealing  with  what  is  familiar 
than  when  handling  strange  material :  in  this  case 
"  familiarity  breeds  contempt  "  of  difficulty.  The  typist 
or  the  seamstress  will  work  better  on  a  machine  which 
she  uses  habitually  than  upon  a  succession  of  others 
equally  good.  Moreover,  we  grow  fond  of  what  we  use 
constantly  and  take  greater  care  of  it  :  thus  we  derive 
a  double  satisfaction  from  the  emotions  aroused  in  the 
functioning  of  both  the  instincts  of  ownership  and  ten- 
derness. Union  is  strength.  The  more  effectively  a 
course  of  conduct  will  provide  satisfaction  for  several 
emotional  tendencies,  therefore,  the  more  frequently  will 
it  be  repeated  and  the  more  difficult  to  break  down. 

Other  instances  may  be  quoted  of  the  intimate  manner 
in  which  actions  productive  of  satisfaction  for  the  owner- 
ship and  the  protective  instincts  are  connected.  Mr. 
Tead  tells  us  *  of  a  spinner  in  a  yarn  mill  who,  when  asked 
to  change  from  some  "  frames  "  on  which  she  had  worked 
for  several  years,  left  abruptly  without  any  explanation. 
In  another  case,  when,  in  order  to  cut  down  the  length 
of  the  working  day  by  an  hour,  it  was  decided  to  employ 
some  stablemen  to  tend  and  clean  the  harness  of  the 
horses  which  were  under  the  control  of  some  truck-drivers, 
objection  was  raised  by  the  latter  because  they  wanted 
to  look  after  their  horses  themselves.  We  met  an  engineer 
recently  who  had  been  employed  at  a  cotton  mill  for 
twenty  years  and  had  never  taken  a  holiday  during  the 

1  Op.  dt. 


INDUSTRIAL  UNREST  179 

whole  time,  though  entitled  to  a  fortnight  annually  with 
pay,  because  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  give  up  the 
charge  of  his  engine  to  any  one  else.  In  a  large  foundry 
a  strike  was  brought  on  because  a  new  foreman  had 
decided  to  change  a  man  from  one  forge,  which  he  had 
come  to  regard  as  his  "  own  "  workplace,  to  another. 
In  this  connection  the  old  proverb  that  new  brooms 
sweep  clean  expresses  only  half  the  truth,  the  other 
being  that  they  often  stir  up  a  great  deal  of  dust  that 
might  better  be  left  settled. 

An  indignant  sense  of  injustice,  maybe  irrational,  is 
invariably  aroused  when  management  fails  to  allow 
for  this  consciousness  on  the  part  of  the  workers  of  the 
ownership  of  their  jobs.  Thus  the  police  who  were 
dismissed  from  their  employment  last  year  still  feel  that 
they  were  cruelly  and  unjustly  deprived  of  something 
which  actually  belonged  to  them  in  the  same  sense  as 
their  homes  and  their  children.  So,  too,  the  resentment 
against  some  one  who  has  come  in  as  an  intruder  to  steal 
work  which  is  the  right  of  another. 

The  right  of  ownership  has  not  yet  been  carried  to 
extremes  by  workmen  :  whether  employers  have  been 
equally  moderate  is  less  certain.  Throughout  the  centuries 
preceding  the  present,  manufacturers  steadily  and  even 
blindly  opposed  the  tendency  of  the  State  to  interfere 
in  industry  and  attempt  to  lay  down  humane  conditions 
for  carrying  on  business  of  which  the  owners  imagined 
that  they  alone  possessed  the  right  of  control.  The 
function  of  government  was  limited  even  by  such  men 
as  John  Bright  and  Herbert  Spencer — and  when  the 
interests  of  the  country  were  at  stake,  too — to  what  was 
called  "  keeping  the  ring  clear "  during  the  disputes 
between  capital  and  labour. 

Nevertheless,  the  more  the  instinct  of  ownership  can 
be  satisfied  within  reasonable  bounds,  the  less  we  shall 
see  such  widespread  disregard  for  public  property  as  was 
common  during  the  war,  and  the  less  will  the  patho- 
logical forms  of  the  instinct  prevail,  as,  for  example,  at 


ISO    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

one  extreme  in  the  positive  shape  of  miserliness,  or  at 
the  other  extreme  in  the  negative  shape  of  sabotage  and 
violent  destructiveness  of  property.  It  is  at  times  when 
one  feels  insecure  in  one's  attachments  to  life  and  when 
there  is  nothing  of  one's  "  own  "  to  cling  to  for  support 
in  emergency  that  these  excesses  tend  most  frequently  to 
appear.  Consequently  it  is  generally  true  that  as  the 
workman  grows  more  prosperous  in  the  material  sense 
the  more  conservative  and  law-abiding  and  less  class- 
conscious  he  becomes,  simply  because  the  more  secure 
he  feels  and  the  more  he  will  stand  to  lose  by  disorder 
and  revolution. 

The  movement  towards  the  control  of  each  industry 
by  the  workers  engaged  in  it  is  the  most  mature  expression 
of  this  primal  tendency  (though  other  instinctive  ten- 
dencies operate  here  as  well),  and  it  is,  therefore,  natural 
that  the  gospel  of  syndicalism,  which  marks  one  par- 
ticular advance  in  this  direction,  should  have  originated 
in  France,  where  the  system  of  "  small  ownership  "  is  so 
deeply  rooted,  and  where  few  families  are  without  a 
fund  of  savings  to  fall  back  upon  in  a  rainy  day.  In 
many  British  industries  something  of  this  desire  on  the 
part  of  the  workers  for  an  interest  in  the  control 
of  the  business  or  industry  in  which  they  are  employed 
is  satisfied  to  a  certain  extent  by  the  co-partnership 
movement.  (Strangely  enough,  the  first  co-partnership 
scheme  was  put  into  operation  in  the  French  workshops 
of  the  Parisian  painter  Le  Claire.)  The  latest  of  these 
co-partnership  schemes  to  appear  is  that  of  a  big  London 
business  man,  who  till  recently  held  all  the  ordinary 
shares  in  the  store  bearing  his  name.  He  has  recently 
declared  his  intention  to  release  100,000  of  these  shares 
for  the  benefit  of  his  employees,  and  to  pay  2  per  cent, 
more  interest  on  them  than  he  himself  receives.  It  has 
been  observed,  too,  that  many  of  the  Lancashire  mill 
operatives  are  at  present  buying  shares  in  the  mills 
where  they  are  employed.  Ownership,  however,  involves 
control  of  what  is  owned,  and  about  this  point  we  shall 


INDUSTRIAL  UNREST  181 

see  some  interesting  conflict  in  the  near  future.  But 
here,  at  the  moment,  we  are  not  concerned  to  estimate 
the  value  of  co-partnership  :  we  simply  note  the  pheno- 
menon. 

Closely  allied  to  the  instinct  of  ownership  and  the 
impulse  of  rivalry  is  the  instinct  of  self-assertion  or  self- 
display,  for  we  may  best  assert  or  display  our  individu- 
ality in  a  world  predominantly  commercial  through  what 
we  own  or  have  won.  The  labourer's  gramophone, 
the  miner's  piano,  the  munitioneer's  fur  coat,  the  bank- 
clerk's  motor-cycle,  and  the  manufacturer's  Rolls-Royce, 
are  not,  then,  if  our  point  is  a  good  one,  the  exhibi- 
tions of  senseless  extravagance  so  much  as  the  outward 
and  visible  signs  of  an  inward  feeling  of  worth  and 
status.  Few  workmen  are  backward  in  taking  the  oppor- 
tunity of  being  photographed  in  the  presence  of  a  big 
machine  or  something  else  in  which  they  can  legitimately 
be  allowed  to  have  pride.  But  the  instinct  of  self- 
display  may  function  in  more  ways  than  these,  as 
will  be  seen,  yet  our  youth  is  commonly  spent  in 
splendid  dreaming  of  what  we  intend  to  achieve,  and  life 
gives  little  opportunity  to  us  to-day  to  prove  our  worth, 
till  we  are  so  old  that  the  sparkle  and  force  of  originality 
which  we  once  possessed  have  left  us.  One  cannot,  there- 
fore, but  welcome  the  general  movement  towards  shorten- 
ing the  hours  of  compulsory  toil,  and  look  forward  to  an 
era  of  adult  education  which  will  help  us  to  express  what- 
ever creative  ability  we  possess.1 

1  Yet  closely  connected  with  the  instinct  of  self-assertion  in  many 
people  is  the  tendency  to  self -consciousness.  The  following  passage 
from  a  daily  paper  will  serve  to  emphasize  this  :  "  The  psychologist 
may  note  that  the  correspondence  course  ministers  in  a  very  tactful 
way  to  the  amazing  self-consciousness  of  the  Englishman  about 
the  things  of  the  intellect.  Everybody  may  know  to  boredom 
that  he  watches  other  men  play  football  or  plays  golf  himself, 
but  the  fact  that  he  is  attempting  to  get  the  maximum  efficiency 
out  of  his  brain  or  to  deepen  his  culture  must  belong  to  the  dark 
secrets  of  his  life.  Thus  the  constant  instruction  impressed  upon 
these  schools  to  send  the  lessons  under  cover  of  a  plain  envelope." 


182     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

A  few  years  ago  Mr.  Hilaire  Belloc  wrote  a  book  J  to 
show  that  we  are  in  danger  as  a  nation  of  drifting  into 
the  shallows  of  the  Servile  State  where  but  a  few  think, 
while  the  many  sheepishly  and  contentedly  obey.  He 
would  no  doubt  have  instanced  Taylorism,  had  it  been 
more  widely  known  at  the  time,  as  an  ominous  portent 
of  what  was  coming.  To  take  from  men  the  opportunity 
for  exercising  initiative  and  judgment  on  the  score  that 
such  exercise  hinders  speedy  production,  without  providing 
alternative  methods  of  self-expression  along  the  same 
lines,  is  an  affront  to  the  instinctive  nature  of  man.  All 
the  reasoning  in  the  world  will  not  convince  him  that 
it  is  better  for  us  all  that  we  should  ever  give  up  the  right 
to  private  judgment.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the 
seemingly  servile  member  of  a  conquered  race  which 
still  retains  a  large  share  of  native  intelligence,  while  he 
may  be  an  obsequious  and  knee-crooking  knave  in  the 
presence  of  his  master,  must  be  carefully  watched  lest 
the  repressed  affronted  self  burst  its  bonds  violently  at 
an  unexpected  moment.  It  is  highly  probable  that 
many,  but  not  all,  of  our  criminals  are  men  whose  indi- 
viduality has  been  repressed  in  such  a  way  as  to  arouse 
the  most  violent  of  emotions  by  reaction.2 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  what  has  already  been  said,  it 
is  an  equally  natural  tendency  to  show  submissiveness 

1  The  Servile  State. 

»  In  an  interview,  Sir  Evelyn  Ruggles-Brise,  Chairman  of  the 
British  Prison  Commissioners  and  Director  of  Convict  Prisons, 
and  founder  of  the  Borstal  System,  gave  a  striking  instance  of  this 
fact.  A  man  who  had  received  three  sentences  of  penal  servitude, 
and  whose  character  showed  him  to  be  a  person  of  most  violent 
character,  and  strongly  embittered  against  Society,  enlisted  on 
his  release  in  1916.  After  being  severely  wounded,  and  during 
his  period  of  convalescence,  he  volunteered  to  save  another  man's 
life  by  giving  his  blood  for  transfusion.  After  recovery,  he  ob- 
tained a  first-class  certificate  as  bombing  instructor,  and  returned 
to  the  front,  gaining  the  Military  Medal  as  well  as  the  Distinguished 
Conduct  Medal.  Of  him  his  officer  wrote  :  ""  He  is  one  of  our  best 
N.C.O.'s,  and  has  rendered  splendid  service  throughout,  and  that 
after  three  months  in  the  hottest  part  of  the  line." 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  183 

on  appropriate  occasions.  "  To  submit  under  right 
conditions,"  someone  has  said,  "  is  not  only  psychically 
pleasant,  but  much  of  the  time  to  be  leaderless  is  definitely 
distressing."  Here  is  a  tendency  which  is  closely  allied  to 
the  herd-instinct,  the  only  significant  difference  being 
that  in  place  of  the  protection  of  numbers  the  submissive 
individual  prefers  the  guardianship  of  a  strong  leader. 
From  babyhood  to  old  age  we  have  our  leaders,  men  who 
represent  in  the  flesh  the  supreme  powers  and  ideals 
which  we  worship  much  as  the  lower  form  boy  worships 
the  captain  of  his  school.  The  child  who  listens  to  tales 
of  fairy  princes  and  princesses,  who  according  to  legend 
actually  do  the  things  which  he  himself  would  like  to  do 
but  cannot,  and  the  boy  who  drinks  avidly  of  the  strong 
waters  of  romance  as  a  substitute  for  living  it,  become 
the  men  who  often  feel  small  and  feeble  in  the  face  of  the 
masters  of  modern  industry,  and  in  place  of  personal 
self-assertion  which  would  be  painful,  take  their  pleasure 
in  submission  to  the  will  of  a  labour-leader  who  dares  to 
do  the  things  which  they  are  too  weak  to  do.  The  wicked 
agitator  of  the  sentimental  press  does  not  need  to  corrupt 
men  before  they  will  listen  to  him.  We  are  all  ready  to 
worship  a  hero,  and  whether  he  is  worthy  of  worship 
is  a  matter  of  secondary  consideration.  The  labour 
leader  satisfies  the  tendency  to  submission  in  some  respects 
only,  however,  for  man  is  a  many-sided  being.  Conse- 
quently, in  an  age  when  there  is  always  something  novel 
to  admire,  but  few  chances  of  excelling  in  more  than 
one  field,  his  hero-worshipping  tendency  finds  changing 
satisfactions.  One  day  the  insatiable  thirst  of  a  people 
for  a  hero  is  satisfied  by  Hawker  in  his  Atlantic  flight, 
immediately  afterwards  by  Panther  in  winning  the  Derby, 
then  by  Alcock  and  Grieve  in  their  Atlantic  victory, 
then  by  Mr.  Smillie  or  the  Geddes  brothers,  next  by 
Lady  Astor  or  by  Sir  Ross  Smith,  then  in  succession  by 
Sir  Thomas  Lawrence,  Carpentier,  and  Lady  Bonham 
Carter,  while  at  this  moment1  Mr.  J.  B.  Hobbs  is  becoming 
the  god  of  the  hour.  Mr.  Tead 2  instances  the  fact  that 
1  July  1920.  z  Op.  cit.,  p.  118. 


184     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

the  manager  or  employer  himself  may  completely  oust 
the  labour  leader  on  occasions  and  become  heroic  in  the 
eyes  of  his  workers. 

One  large  departmental  store  in  a  large  Eastern  city  (he  says) 
is  in  charge  of  a  man  who  is  really  admired  by  his  employees.  To 
this  manager  who  wants  to  run  his  store  on  genuinely  democratic 
lines  the  subservience  of  the  workers  is  a  constant  source  of  irrita- 
tion. He  stands  up  in  meetings  of  the  store  employees  and  berates 
them  roundly  for  their  lack  of  initiative  and  aggressiveness.  The 
spectacle  of  this  gentleman  belabouring  the  workers  about  their 
reluctance  to  assume  leadership  and  responsibility  is  one  to  make 
the  student  of  industrial  democracy  ponder  and  inquire  more  deeply 
into  the  psychological  springs  of  action. 

Such  a  student  will  probably  discover  what  appeared  in 
our  discussion  of  monotony  :  that  initiative  and  resource- 
fulness will  disappear  almost  entirely  unless  deliberately 
cultivated  from  the  moment  of  the  worker's  entry 
into  industry. 

Though  this  tendency  to  submissiveness  is  natural 
and  even  pleasureable  when  normally  indulged,  it  is  a 
great  mistake  to  attempt  to  fix  it  as  a  permanent  mood. 
In  its  spontaneous  manifestations  it  is  healthy  :  externally 
imposed  upon  any  but  the  feeble-minded  it  breeds  resent- 
ment by  reaction.  To  be  called  in  to  see  the  manager 
and  to  have  to  remain  standing  uneasily  arid  answer 
with  a  show  of  respect  the  questions  of  one  who  is  perhaps 
magnificently  at  ease  in  a  comfortable  chair  will  make  a 
worker  feel  small,  but  it  may  also  arouse  in  him  dangerous 
emotions.  To  treat  employees  with  respect,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  to  stir  into  life  the  loyalty  latent  in  the  depths 
of  every  individual,  and  to  gain  respect  in  return.  It 
would  be  a  boon  if  one  of  our  enlightened  modern  business 
heads  would  write  an  essay  on  the  greater  efficiency  which 
comes  through  tactful  and  considerate  treatment  of 
individual  employees.  Recently  in  a  conversation  the 
chief  of  a  big  business  house  in  London  told  us  that  when 
trouble  occurred  with  any  of  his  "  assistants  "  (a  better 
sounding  word  than  employees)  he  called  them  in  to  see 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  185 

him  privately.  He  first  of  all  put  them  at  ease,  and  then 
endeavoured  in  a  quiet,  tactful  way  to  get  them  to  see  that 
every  such  trouble  as  theirs  could  be  traced  to  a  perfectly 
natural  cause,  which  .together  they  might  agree  to  seek 
and  with  mutual  sympathy  understand  and  perhaps 
eradicate.  His  friendly  attitude  invariably  won  the  con- 
fidence of  the  assistants,  and  by  positive  suggestions  made 
in  the  spirit  of  helpful  friendship  he  was  enabled  to  pour 
oil  on  the  troubled  waters  to  the  good  of  all  concerned. 

Even  considered  on  the  lowest  plane,  as  a  mere  business 
proposition,  such  an  attitude  anticipates  many  dismissals, 
and  so  saves  to  management  much  of  the  present  large 
cost  of  the  labour  turnover  which  is  so  tremendous  and 
so  wasteful  in  most  industries. 

To  complete  this  chapter  a  few  more  instances  will 
suffice.  It  should  be  said  that  the  Taylor  system  of 
functional  foremanship  removes  to  some  extent  the  neces- 
sity for  subservience  to  the  will  of  a  single  foreman  whom, 
perhaps,  one  cannot  respect.  It  is  the  reaction  brought 
about  by  enforced  subservience,  too,  which  is  partly 
responsible  for  our  dislike  of  forms  of  application  for 
employment  which  necessitate  our  giving  full  details,  as 
though  to  a  superior,  of  what  we  would  prefer  to  forget. 
Workers  should  be  given  opportunities  of  wiping  out 
unfortunate  accidents  in  their  past ;  and  this  done,  all 
official  records  should  be  destroyed.  Severe  treatment, 
too,  of  labour  leaders,  even  when  deserved,  is  unwise  ; 
for,  as  the  old  saying  holds,  "  the  blood  of  the  martyrs 
is  the  seed  of  the  church."  An  elaborate  system  of 
regulations  and  fines  which  workers  have  had  no  voice  in 
deciding  has  also  a  marked  irritating  effect. 

Speaking  of  the  reactions  of  the  worker  whom  submis- 
siveness  has  exploited  too  far,  Professor  Carleton  Parker, 
an  American  economist,  writes :  * 

The  baulked  labourer  here  follows  one  of  ...  two  .  .  .  lines 
of  conduct :  (i)  he  either  weakens,  becomes  inefficient,  drifts 


American  Economical  Review  Supplement,  September,   1918. 


186     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

away,  or  (2)  he  indulges  in  a  true  type,  inferiority  compensation, 
and  in  order  to  dignify  himself,  to  eliminate  for  himself  his  in- 
feriority in  his  own  eyes,  he  strikes  or  brings  on  a  strike  ;  he  com- 
mits violence  or  he  stays  on  the  job  and  injures  machinery  or 
mutilates  the  materials.  .  .  .  His  condition  is  one  of  mental  stress 
and  unfocussed  psychic  unrest,  and  could  in  all  accuracy  be  called 
a  definite  industrial  psychosis.  He  is  neither  wilful  nor  responsible, 
he  is  suffering  from  a  stereotyped  mental  disease. 

A  writer  in  the  World's  Work  (July  1920)  even  goes 
so  far  as  to  describe  a  particular  trade  union  as  being 
largely  recruited  from  this  type  of  labourer.  We  quote 
the  following  passages  for  what  they  are  worth  as  em- 
phasizing the  folly  of  expecting  rational  action  from 
embittered  workmen  : — 

Take  the  Independent  Workers  of  the  World  in  the  United  States. 
That  organization  is  supposed  to  advocate  Syndicalism,  but  only 
a  very  small  proportion  of  the  membership  sees  in  it  other  than 
an  organization  of  revenge.  It  has  had  a  conspicuous  success  only 
among  the  Western  agricultural  labourers,  lumber- jacks,  and 
miners — in  all  of  which  fields  the  worker  has  been  migratory  and 
has  been  in  the  past  shamefully  ill-treated.  Its  membership  con- 
sists of  a  mass  of  keenly  dissatisfied  men  anxious  to  get  even.  .  .  . 

They  want  to  destroy.  The  "  sabcat  "  who  drives  spikes  into 
a  farmer's  field  in  order  to  wreck  the  machinery  is  thinking,  as 
a  rule,  of  some  farmer  who  has  misused  him.  The  migratory 
worker  is  a  man  who  has  failed,  or  who,  because  he  has  committed 
some  crime,  must  keep  moving.  He  has  no  residence  and  no  vote, 
and  can  easily  be  convinced  that  Capital  and  not  his  own  shift- 
lessness  has  deprived  him  of  a  more  regular  livelihood.  .  .  . 

There  is  a  somewhat  similar  class  with  which  England  is  familiar 
— the  hop-pickers.  In  every  hop-growing  region  the  picking  season 
is  one  during  which  the  farmers  find  it  advisable  to  sit  up  nights 
watching  their  property  and  all  the  constables  take  on  special 
deputies.  The  crowds  that  come  flocking  in  contain  an  extra- 
ordinary proportion  of  criminals  and  rowdies.  It  would  need 
small  persuasive  power  to  organize  these  bands  for  a  mass  depre- 
dation— unless  individual  depredation  seems  more  profitable. 

REFERENCES 

McDoucALL,  WM.  :  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology. 
RIVERS,  W.  H.  R. :  Instinct  and  the  Unconscious. 
SHAND,  A. :  The  Foundations  of  Character. 
TEAD,  O. :  Instincts  in  Industry. 


§  5-   THE   WOMAN   WORKER 

Among  those  who  support  the  woman's  "movement" 
towards  economic  equality  with  men  there  has  been  a 
tendency  to  make  light  of  the  natural  mental  differences 
between  the  sexes  ;  indeed,  in  many  quarters,  to  argue 
as  a  means  to  the  end  in  view  for  their  non-existence.  If 
our  aptitudes  and  abilities  could  be  wholly  dissociated 
from  our  deeply-rooted  interests  this  view  of  the  native 
equality  of  men  and  women  at  all  points  might  be  sound, 
but  the  fact  that  the  upholders  of  the  view  themselves 
declare  frequently  that  the  entry  of  women  into  the  spheres 
of  politics  and  industry  has  resulted,  owing  to  their 
peculiar  capacities,  in  a  marked  increase  in  efficiency  and 
in  a  better  spirit  and  outlook  is  testimony  itself  to  the 
belief  that  the  vocational  aptitudes  of  the  sexes  are  pro- 
bably complementary  rather  than  in  every  respect  the 
same.  As  long  as  women's  economic  activities  were 
restricted  by  convention  and  custom  to  the  province 
in  which  their  sex-attraction  had  greater  market  value 
than  their  intelligence,  the  demand  for  a  fuller  and  richer 
experience  was  to  be  pressed  at  wellnigh  all  costs. 
But  whether  whole-time  participation  in  modern  large- 
scale  industry  as  routine  workers  * — and  it  is  in  this  connec- 
tion that  they  are  most  sought  after — is  on  the  whole 
good  for  women  is  doubtful.  To  most  students  of  human 
nature  it  seems  that  woman  will  only  find  permanent 
satisfaction  in  careers  where  her  natural  solicitude  for  life 
in  its  various  forms  and  her  skill  in  fostering  its  growth 

1  "  A  woman  is  ideal  for  repetition  work." — War  Office  Mem.  on 
Work  of  Women,  August,  1916. 

187 


188     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

can  find  scope  for  expression :  in  careers  such  as  teach- 
ing, nursing  and  healing,  gardening,  house-planning,  and 
welfare  work,  in  the  administration  of  the  law  respect- 
ing these  things,  in  the  work  of  inspiration,  through 
art,  drama,  literature  and  music,  and  in  such  occupations 
as  are  subsidiary  to  these  main  lines  of  activity.  Women 
cannot  and  should  not  be  debarred,  however,  from  ex- 
perimenting in  whatever  fields  of  work  may  attract  them  ; 
in  the  words  of  Olive  Schreiner  they  must  for  the  present 
be  allowed  to  take  "  all  labour  for  their  province." 

Yet  woman  stands  in  more  intimate  relationship  to 
the  coming  generation  than  the  male  worker,  and  the 
community  is  bound  to  regard  her  as  a  potential  mother 
as  well  as  a  wage-earner.  Many  observers  consequently 
feel  strongly  that  it  is  bad  for  the  race  that  women  should 
enter  the  factories  to  take  up  repetition  work  and  tend 
machines  continuously  for  long  periods.  It  is  maintained 
that  there  is  solid  ground  for  the  fear  that  the  woman 
who  becomes  too  completely  adapted  to  the  machine-work 
of  the  factory  which  offers  no  scope  for  ambition  and  few 
chances  for  promotion,  to  the  life  of  crowds  and  noises 
and  ceaseless  movement,  with  little  responsibility  and  a 
plain  straightforward  task  calling  for  no  great  measure 
of  thought,  will  fail  subsequently  in  the  home  where,  if 
children  are  present,  vigilance,  initiative  and  common  sense 
are  continually  in  demand.  For  such  reasons  welfare  work 
in  the  factory  must  be  encouraged,  even  if  for  no  others. 
The  "  absentee  "  mother  who  does  contrive,  nevertheless, 
to  run  a  home  smoothly  in  her  so-called  leisure  is  sub- 
jected to  too  great  a  strain  and  grows  old  before  she  ought. 

We  ought  not  to  forget,  however,  that  one  of  the 
strongest  motives  urging  the  modern  woman  possessing 
spirit  and  initiative  to  enter  industry  is  her  dissatisfaction 
with  the  conditions  under  which  she  must  manage  her 
home  to-day.  As  a  writer  whom  we  are  unable  to  trace 
puts  the  matter  : — 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  wife  had  to  grind  the  corn  and  bake 
the  bread,  tend  the  dairy  and  doctor  her  household,  spin  her  wool 


INDUSTRIAL   UNREST  189 

and  weave  her  cloth,  and  prepare  all  her  food-stuffs  from  the  be- 
ginning. But  time  has  taken  from  her  this  life  of  varied  and  in- 
teresting toil.  It  is  the  industrial  revolution,  not  the  higher 
education  of  girls,  that  has  wrecked  the  home.  The  wife  has  left 
to  her  nothing  but  the  care  of  her  usually  small  family.  If  she 
be  a  rich  woman,  she  is  in  the  position  of  the  manager  of  an  over- 
staffed hotel  beset  with  frittering  duties  that  break  her  power  of 
concentration,  but  which  do  not  exhaust  her  energies  :  these  over- 
flow into  the  sterile  creations  of  fashion  and  luxury.  If  she  be 
a  poor  woman,  she  is  an  amateur  at  war  with  circumstance  :  her 
chief  duties  consist  of  keeping  her  children  clean  in  a  dirty  house 
with  an  inadequate  water-supply,. and  to  nourish  them  on  cheap 
and  adulterated  food  cooked  on  an  ill-designed  kitchen-range 
that  eats  up  expensive  fuel. 

Though  much  of  the  antipathy  manifested  by  many 
men  in  trade  unions  against  women  workers  is  aroused 
through  the  placid  contentment  of  the  latter  to  do  low- 
priced  repetition  work  without  regard  for  social  conse- 
quences, "  to  undercut  man's  standards  "  as  it  is  put, 
yet  a  considerable  amount  of  sex-prejudice  is  undoubtedly 
fostered,  unconsciously  if  not  deliberately,  as  a  method 
of  creating  greater  trade  union  solidarity  among  men. 
But  employers  do  not  always  avoid  stirring  up  this  preju- 
dice. It  is  not  tactful,  to  say  the  least,  to  announce  as 
one  employer  did,  "  I  am  confident  that  a  furniture  factory 
could  be  successfully  conducted  with  about  5  per  cent, 
skilled  men  and  95  per  cent,  of  women."  I  Men  and  women 
are  at  different  levels  of  industrial  development,  and 
with  the  development  of  greater  experience  it  is  probable 
that  women  themselves  will  change  in  their  attitude 
towards  routine  factory  work.  Miss  Proud  has  pointed 
out  the  great  disadvantages  under  which  girls  labour 
at  present.2  In  the  majority  of  cases,  she  says,  a  factory 
girl's  life-work  is  undecided  for  at  least  ten  years.  She 
is  uncertain  whether  she  ought  to  equip  herself  for  home- 
life  or  for  industry,  and  after  ten  years  of  drifting  it  is 
not  likely  that  she  will  be  perfectly  prepared  for  either. 

1  Evening  News,  London,  October  20,  1919. 
»  Welfare  Work,  pp.  80-8 1. 


190    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

Women  are  inferiors  in  the  industrial  world  because 
they  have  not  decided  (except  individually)  that  they 
desire  to  be  otherwise.  But  there  is  little  doubt  that 
the  future  will  witness  the  harmonious  integration  of  the 
industrial  aims  and  ideals  of  men  and  women. 

The  deep  unconscious  elan,  then,  which  has  created 
the  demand  for  political  and  economic  equality  as  a  means 
to  a  richer  and  completer  life,  cannot  be  repressed.  Time 
and  patient  study  alone  will  enable  us  to  see  all  the  multi- 
farious interests  of  men  and  women  in  proper  perspective 
and  without  the  interposition  of  the  coloured  and  dis- 
torting screen  of  sex-prejudice. 

REFERENCES 

ABLER,  A. :  The  Neurotic  Constitution. 

BELLOC,  H. :   The  Servile  State. 

HART,  B. :     The  Psychology  of  Insanity. 

MANCHESTER  UNIVERSITY  PRESS  :  Labour  and  Industry. 

McDoucALL,  WM.  :    Introduction  to  Social  Psychology  ;  The  Group 

Mind. 

PROUD,  E. :  Welfare  Work. 

RIVERS,  W.  H.  R. :  Instinct  and  the  Unconscious. 
SCHREINER,  O. :  Women  and  Labour. 
TEAD,  O. :  Instincts  in  Industry. 
TROTTER,  W. :  Instincts  of  the  Herd. 
WEBB,  S.  and  B. :  History  of  Trade  Unionism. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  CREATIVE  IMPULSE  IN  INDUSTRY 

§  i.  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  TRADITIONAL  TYPES 
OF  CRAFTSMANSHIP 

WE  have  already  noted  the  fact  that  the  root  of  the 
opposition  of  the  craft  unions  to  scientific  management 
fastens  about  the  tendency  which  it  has  undoubtedly 
accelerated  towards  the  extreme  specialization  of  function 
in  industry.  Ever  since  Adam  Smith  discoursed  so 
lucidly  from  the  point  of  view  of  output  on  the  advantages 
of  the  division  of  labour,  economists  have  never  tired 
of  advocating  an  increasing  application  of  this  principle. 
In  following  up  our  study  of  the  instinctive  attitude  of 
the  workers  and  employers  we  shall  be  compelled  to  take 
this  opposition  of  the  craftsmen  into  account,  and  to 
form  some  conception  of  practical  utility  concerning  the 
general  relations  between  modern  industry  and  human 
progress  and  of  the  direction  of  the  broad  drift  of  con- 
temporary life  and  endeavour. 

The  craftsman's  incentive  to  industry  is  largely  an 
interest  in  his  work  ;  his  aim  is  not  only  to  gain  a  liveli- 
hood, but  also  to  express  his  abilities  and  aspirations 
as  fully  as  he  can  through  the  labour  of  his  hand.  So 
far  the  main  appeal  of  the  modern  works  manager  has  been 
on  the  whole  not  so  much  to  an  interest  in  making  things 
well  as  to  the  general  desire  for  material  security  and  well- 
being.  Nothing  pleases  the  manager  of  a  factory  less 
to-day  than  to  get  orders  for  a  big  number  of  articles 
each  of  a  different  pattern  ;  nothing  delights  the  crafts- 

391 


192    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

man  more  than  to  exhaust  all  his  ingenuity  and  energy 
in  the  production  of  single  masterpieces  of  skill.  But 
the  manifold  material  and  mental  needs  of  humanity  in 
our  time  can  no  longer  be  completely  supplied  by  the 
craftsmen,  so  that  we  are  driven  to  the  use  of  the  cheaper 
standard  article  whether  we  like  it  or  not.  A  civilization 
based  on  the  old-fashioned  craft  system  would  be  simpler, 
but  even  if  we  could  establish  it  most  of  us  would  have 
to  do  without  the  many  necessities  and  luxuries  which 
machinery  alone  can  provide  in  sufficient  quantities  for 
all. 

Yet  the  craftsman  may  be  partly  justified  in  viewing 
with  genuine  alarm  the  gradual  disintegration  one  by  one 
of  the  old-fashioned  crafts.  The  carpenter,  for  example, 
finds  himself  no  longer  what  he  once  was,  an  engineer 
in  wood  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  stresses  and  strains 
and  the  strength  of  materials  ;  he  has  been  practically 
ousted  from  most  of  the  up-to-date  workshops  where 
machinery  has  been  installed,  and  the  joiner  who  has 
displaced  him  spends  his  days  like  the  factory  operative 
in  more  or  less  mechanical  repetition  work.  Even  the 
cabinet-maker,  who  may  perhaps  represent  in  the  popular 
imagination  the  skilled  worker  with  a  definite  craft 
calling  for  the  display  of  intelligence,  invention,  and 
artistic  sense,  is  in  reality  either  a  standard  deal  dressing- 
table-maker  or  a  standard  oak  dressing-table-maker, 
not  both,  and  rises  from  expertness  in  such  work  not  to 
a  more  general  experience  and  more  varied  excellence 
of  achievement,  but  to  further  equally  specialized  work 
on  more  costly  materials  or  articles,  such  as,  let  us 
say,  standard  mahogany  sideboards.  This  limitation  and 
stereotyping  of  function  is,  however,  not  in  itself  so 
ominous  a  phenomenon  as  the  consequent  limitation 
of  technical  knowledge,  experience  and  general  skill 
among  workers  which  it  necessarily  involves. 

It  was  the  aim  of  American  scientific  management  in 
large-scale  industry,  as  we  saw,  to  transfer  to  management 
the  body  of  knowledge  and  skill  which  the  craftsmen 


THE   CREATIVE   IMPULSE   IN   INDUSTRY    193 

held  as  a  monopoly,  and  centre  it  in  the  planning  department 
where  it  could  be  analysed,  standardized  and  mechanized 
and  then  handed  back  in  separate  part-processes  to  semi- 
skilled workers,  none  of  whom  would  or  could  be  familiar 
any  longer  with  the  work  as  a  whole.  We  are  not  here 
concerned  primarily  with  the  question  whether  the  machine- 
made  article  which  results  from  the  employment  of  such 
methods  is  or  is  not  better  than  the  product  of  the  old- 
time  craftsman's  work  :  our  interest  is  in  the  comparative 
effects  of  the  new  and  the  old  systems  of  production  upon 
the  minds  of  the  workers.  Does  the  doom  of  the  tradi- 
tional type  of  craftsmanship  necessarily  mean  the  gradual 
disappearance  of  interest  in  work  and  of  all  craftsman- 
ship, and  the  focussing  of  living  attention,  or  what  is  left 
of  it,  somewhere  outside  one's  full-time  occupation  ?  Or, 
if  practically  the  whole  of  one's  conscious  life  must  be 
devoted  to  work,  can  modern  industrial  occupations 
satisfy  man's  many-sided  nature  ? 

The  craftsman  holds  that  the  new  system  involves 
both  the  removal  of  interest  from  work  and  the  thwarting 
of  a  fundamental  impulse  which  it  is  essential  for  us  to 
encourage  if  we  wish  to  remain  in  the  van  of  civilization. 
This  impulse  we  have  inherited  from  our  animal  ancestors  ; 
it  is  the  channel  by  which  we  find  supreme  satisfaction 
in  our  reactions  to  environmental  stimuli ;  it  is  the 
constructive  instinct,  the  energizing  reaction  about  which 
knowledge  and  skill  most  naturally  gather  and  grow. 
The  man  who  does  not  feel  that  he  is  making  or  helping 
to  make  something  cannot  be  relied  upon  to  put  forth 
any  effort  which  is  distinctively  human  effort.  Yet  the 
instinct  is  not  peculiar  to  man.  We  see  the  constructive 
instinct  followed  in  the  nest-building  activities  of  birds, 
in  the  dam-building  of  beavers,  in  the  web-making  of 
spiders,  and  in  the  honey-combing  of  bees.  But  here 
man  differs  in  a  marked  manner  from  the  animals  from 
whom  he  has  inherited  this  peculiarly  pleasing  method 
of  reaction  :  the  animals  rarely  if  ever  improve  upon  the 
hereditary  pattern  of  their  constructions,  whereas  man 

13 


194    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

is  distinguished  by  an  ever-increasing  variety  in  the 
methods  and  in  the  results  of  his  creative  work.  Thus 
the  beaver  constructs  one  type  of  home,  the  thrush  one 
type  of  nest,  but  the  houses  of  man  are  infinite  in  their 
diversity.  So  with  all  that  he  does  :  his  restless  invention 
is  ever  appearing  in  new  forms  of  surprising  originality. 
Though  we  are  mindful  of  the  fact  that  many  men  of 
supreme  intellect,  notably  Newton  and  Kant,  have  been 
weak  in  body,  yet  it  is  generally  true  that  poor  physique 
and  mental  drowsiness  on  the  one  hand,  and  virility  of 
body  and  alertness  of  mind  on  the  other,  go  together. 
Indeed,  the  strength  of  the  constructive  instinct — we 
are  not  here  speaking  of  its  quality — seems  to  vary 
directly  with  the  mental  and  physical  vigour  of  men  and 
women  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  greater  the  amount  of  muscular 
and  nervous  energy  in  normal  people,  the  greater  the 
tendency  towards  some  form  of  constructive  activity. 
Hence  the  importance  of  a  high  minimum  standard  of 
physical  health  and  mental  comfort  in  any  community 
if  we  wish  to  increase  our  efficiency  and  inventiveness. 
We  have  spoken  of  the  fact  that  repetition  work  has  a 
peculiar  attraction  for  the  feeble-minded  low-grade  worker 
only.  The  report  by  the  National  Service  Medical  Boards 
on  the  physical  examination  of  men  of  military  age  during 
the  recent  war  shows  conclusively  that  factory  life  and 
defective  physique  are  closely  associated ;  that  while  the 
"  indices  of  fitness  "  in  industries  like  mining  (an  occu- 
pation which  demands  both  intelligence  and  strength) 
and  agriculture  are  90-5  and  89-9  per  cent,  respectively, 
in  tailoring  and  the  cotton  trade  they  are  only  62-3  and 
72-9  per  cent.,  so  that  in  Lancashire  and  Cheshire,  "  the 
average  man  here  is,  for  military  purposes,  an  old  man 
before  he  reaches  the  age  of  forty."  J  Some  investi- 
gators have  given  the  average  age  of  the  factory  worker 
as  little  above  thirty.  Statistics  are  urgently  needed  to 
show  us  exactly  what  happens  to  the  average  factory 

1  Physical   Examination    of   Men    by    National    Service    Boards, 
£>ee  also  footnote,  p.  126, 


THE   CREATIVE   IMPULSE  IN   INDUSTRY    195 

worker  after  the  age  of  forty.  If  the  effect  of  factory 
life  with  its  unvaried  monotony  is  bad  physically  as  we 
suspect,  equally  pernicious  must  its  mental  effects  be, 
and  it  is  the  mental  factor  and  the  mental  influence  of 
repetition  work  with  which  we  are  primarily  concerned. 

Now,  the  phenomenon  of  repetition  work  deliberately 
self -chosen,  that  form  of  activity  which  is  not  usually 
associated  with  a  high-grade  virility  of  intellect,  is  not 
the  mark  of  the  under-nourished  routine  factory  worker 
solely  ;  it  is  to  be  seen  in  the  artistic  world  as  well  as 
in  the  factory,  but  its  influence  there  is  equally  deadening. 
The  minor  novelist,  the  musician  or  the  painter  who 
succeeds  early  in  his  career  in  winning  popular  approval, 
too  often  aims  thereafter  at  nothing  more  ingenious  than 
a  repetition  of  his  old  effects,  while  the  supremely  great 
artist  passes  on  from  the  triumph  of  every  achievement 
to  fresh  fields  of  enterprise,  challenging  new  difficulties 
for  the  sake  of  the  joy  which  he  experiences  in  overcoming 
them.  Just,  then,  as  we  have  the  metal  worker  specializ- 
ing for  years  in  turning  bolts,  so  we  have  the  type  of  artist 
who  never  strays  beyond  his  own  chosen  corner  of  the 
world  of  art.  It  may  be  said,  of  course,  that  the  artist 
who  is  under  no  obligation  to  attend  to  one  particular 
aspect  of  life  and  experience  continuously  would  do  better 
if  he  cultivated  a  many-sided  interest  in  the  world  about 
him,  but  the  reply  will  usually  be  given  that  in  no  other 
way  than  by  rigid  specialization  can  success  be  achieved, 
that  modern  psychology  has  amply  demonstrated  the 
impossibility  of  becoming  expert  in  one  thing  if  one's 
energies  are  being  scattered  over  others,  that  you  cannot 
become  a  playwright  by  painting  portraits,  or  an  actor 
by  violin  practice  ;  in  short,  that  a  Jack-of-all-trades  is 
generally  a  master  of  none.  Moreover,  we  shall  be  told 
that  one's  whole  personality  is  fully  developed  in  any 
branch  of  art,  but  this  obviously  depends  on  the  person- 
ality. It  certainly  seems  as  if  the  days  of  all-round  culture 
have  passed  for  the  majority  of  men. 

In  so  far  as  he  has  a  definite  ideal  of  what  any  single 


196    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

workman  ought  to  be,  the  scientific  management  expert 
of  the  Taylor  school  would  probably  say,  and  as  Gilbreth 
indirectly  says,  that  we  must  aim  at  the  supply  and 
development  of  workmen  who  will  find  as  much  interest 
in  making  wheelbarrow  handles,  let  us  say,  as  Barrie 
finds  in  writing  sentimental  comedies,  or  as  W.  W.  Jacobs 
in  writing  tales  of  Thames-side.  Does  this  point  to  a  de- 
sirable or  realizable  ideal  ?  \Ve  may  suspect  that  even 
such  men  as  Barrie  and  Jacobs  occasionally  tire  of  the 
monotony  of  their  themes  and  methods  and  the  sameness 
of  their  cultivated  mannerisms.  So  we  may  justifiably 
doubt  the  possibility  of  any  one,  if  we  except  the  feeble- 
minded, possessing  a  permanent  interest  in  such  highly 
specialized  routine  work  as  bottling  vinegar  or  wrapping 
up  electric  lamps.1  Something  more  must  be  done  to 
ensure  the  continued  vitality  of  the  spirit  of  invention, 
or  the  race  is  doomed.  Specialization  is  good  only  if 
it  is  illuminated  by  a  wide  culture  :  we  see  the  spirit  of 
invention  alert  when  it  is  able  to  turn  its  attention  away 
frequently  from  its  specialized  objective  and  rove  over 
the  whole  wide  field  of  human  interests.  It  was  not  a 
narrow-minded  specialist  in  blinkers  who  first  saw  that 
if  the  principles  of  the  nail  and  the  gimlet  were  combined 
we  should  get  the  modern  screw.  As  an  example  of  the 
restricted  vision  of  an  over-divorced  specialization  we 
have  the  illuminating  example  of  the  case  of  the  be- 
lated discovery  of  the  printing  process,  the  possibility  of 
which  depended  on  the  invention  of  movable  type.  Yet 
thousands  of  years  ago  the  principle  of  the  movable  type 
was  in  existence  in  the  instruments  employed  for  affixing 
the  king's  seal  to  proclamations,  but  the  scholars  whose 
interests  did  not  extend  to  the  world  of  affairs  con- 
tinued to  write  out  their  books  laboriously  by  hand, 

1  Miss  Proud  (Welfare  Work,  p.  88)  speaks  of  a  girl  who  worked 
excellently  in  a  factory  till  she  had  learnt  all  she  could  about 
her  machine,  and  lost  all  interest  in  her  work  as  soon  as  this  was 
accomplished.  She  became  then  a  commonplace  and  dissatisfied 
worker,  a  source  of  trouble  to  those  in  authority  over  her. 


THE   CREATIVE  IMPULSE  IN  INDUSTRY    197 

unmindful  of   the  unheeded  hint  that  was  daily  before 
their  eyes. 

It  would  seem  that  the  constructive  instinct  which  calls 
clearly  for  careful  consideration,  since  it  is  so  important 
a  factor  in  determining  the  highest  quality  of  human 
motivation,  is  closely  connected  with  and  probably  origin- 
ates as  a  specific  differentiation  of  the  play-impulse 
manifested  when  we  possess  an  abundance  of  physical 
and  mental  energy  over  and  above  what  is  needed  for 
the  requirements  of  life.  It  is  because  this  connection 
is  so  intimate  psychologically  that  a  permanent  divorce 
between  work  and  play  is  fundamentally  artificial  and 
injurious.  Work  which  is  genuinely  constructive  will 
always  occupy  the  play  energy  of  all  normal  people  engaged 
in  it,  while  every  one  knows  that  we  put  the  equivalent 
of  a  marked  amount  of  real  hard  labour  into  our  favourite 
games.  Those  who  play  little,  either  mentally  or  physi- 
cally, never  achieve  greatness.  The  play  of  the  feeble- 
minded and  the  feeble-bodied  of  the  slums,  such  as  it  is, 
is  almost  wholly  imitative,  and  often  merely  reminiscent, 
when  it  is  at  all  vigorous,  of  the  games  of  primitive  people. 
The  desire  to  experiment  with  life  for  the  sake  of  dis- 
covering new  adjustments — and  this  we  said  is  the  mark 
of  the  best  intelligence — is  rarely  active  among  the  slum- 
dwellers  because  new  adjustments  involve  a  degree  of 
willed  attention  which  such  individuals  can  never  give. 

Thus,  in  our  inquiry  into  the  general  problems  of 
motivation  in  work  we  have  the  mentality  of  two  different 
classes  of  worker  to  take  into  consideration.  There  is 
no  universal  desire  for  an  increase  of  craftsmanship. 
There  are  those  who  rebel  against  the  working  conditions 
of  the  great  business  or  factory,  because  these  thwart  in 
so  many  cases  their  efforts  at  self-expression,  it  is  true, 
but  we  also  have  those  who  have  become  completely 
adapted  to  modern  industry,  who  find  routine  work  a 
rest,  who  like  tasks  to  be  so  monotonous  that  they  can 
perform  them  asleep,  and  who  resent  efforts  to  educate 
them  into  alertness.  Investigators  who  argue  that 


198    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

factory  work  is  not  mentally  depressing  quote  freely  in 
illustration  of  their  contention  the  experience  of  the 
latter  type  of  worker.  Those  who  see  in  modern  industry 
nothing  but  evil  quote  the  example  of  the  hooligan  and 
the  statistics  of  crime  and  lunacy.  (There  is  no  doubt  that 
with  the  passing  of  the  old  type  of  apprenticeship,  juvenile 
labour  is  being  in  many  cases  over-exploited  and  hooli- 
ganism and  crime  are  but  a  natural  reaction,  so  that  the 
time  is  ripe  for  an  attempt  to  revive  the  conception  of 
apprenticeship  in  a  form  suitable  to  modern  needs.) 

It  is  this  variation  in  the  amount  of  available  mental 
energy  among  us  which  is  responsible  for  our  varying 
industrial  ideals.  The  craftsman's  ideal  of  life  is  the 
life  of  creative  activity  ;  but  the  factory  worker  who 
finds  little  interest  but  considerable  nervous  strain  in  his 
enforced  labour  tends  to  idealize  the  life  of  leisure  with 
its  freedom  from  responsibility.  To  prosper  by  worthy 
achievements  is  the  aim  of  the  man  who  has  found  his 
life  work  :  to  get  rich  by  luck  is  the  object  of  those  whose 
work  is  their  prison.  Out  of  these  two  entirely  different 
attitudes  spring  two  radically  divergent  philosophies  of 
industry,  which,  if  civilization  is  to  retain  its  equilibrium, 
we  shall  be  forced  somehow  to  synthesize.  William 
Morris  and  John  Ruskin  of  the  nineteenth  century  repre- 
sented one  attitude  :  the  masses  of  our  large  cities  who 
find  their  chief  enjoyment  in  the  passive  pleasures  of 
the  cinema  and  the  football  match  represent  the  other. 
Now,  the  united  functioning  in  a  single  occupation  of 
the  work  and  play  impulses  should  be  the  objective  of 
every  industrial  reformer,  and  whatever  facilitates  its 
achievement  must  be  supported  and  whatever  hinders 
it  removed. 

When  Dean  Inge,  however,  told  us  that  the  human 
race  had  been  for  thousands  of  years  a  race  of  tillers  of 
the  soil,  of  hunters  and  of  fighters,  that  these  were  the 
occupations  for  which  our  organisms  were  adapted,  and 
that  we  were  not  acclimatized  to  any  others,  he  was 
showing  us  the  seamy  side  only  of  the  Brussels  carpet  of 


THE  CREATIVE  IMPULSE  IN  INDUSTRY 

life.  There  is  another  side.  Human  nature  is  not  rigidly 
constructed  but  capable  of  extremely  wide  powers  of 
adaptation  to  changing  circumstances ;  we  have  seen  how 
that  even  in  the  feebler  of  our  species  those  unfortunate 
persons  who  have  been  reared  in  physical  and  psychical 
privation,  shut  off  from  the  stimulating  effects  of  good 
food  and  fine  art,  literature,  and  music  frequently  adapt 
themselves  to  the  worst  features  of  industry.  But  if 
such  persons  can  adapt  themselves  to  industry  at  all 
under  modern  conditions,  surely  those  with  greater  vitality 
can  effect  a  better  adaptation  by  a  modification  of  their 
work,  rather  than  of  themselves.  When  Dean  Inge, 
therefore,  following  Ruskin,  speculates  whether  it  might 
not  be  wise  after  all  to  plan  a  retreat  to  the  easier  condi- 
tions of  a  more  primitive  time  gone  by,  when  in  a  simpler 
industrial  commonwealth  men  could  work  out  their 
salvation  at  greater  leisure  and  with  fuller  assurance  of 
success,  we  must  decline  to  follow  him.  We  should  be 
obliged  to  give  up  many  of  the  advantages  which  are 
the  direct  outcome  of  an  intolerance  of  the  evils  of  simpler 
times.  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  the  present  ten- 
dencies are  wholly  evil,  and  the  general  opinion  is  to  be 
preferred  that  we  are  living  in  a  difficult  age  of  transition 
which  will  soon  pass,  and  that  with  common  courage  and 
sagacity  we  shall  yet  plant  firmly  the  foundations  of 
the  future.  Besides,  if  we  cannot,  as  many  think,  adapt 
ourselves  to  the  relatively  familiar  conditions  of  to-day, 
how  could  we  be  certain  of  adapting  our  civilization  to 
the  stranger  conditions  of  an  age  long  past  ? 


§  2.  MODERN   RECREATION 

If  the  quality  of  the  constructive  instinct  is  closely 
connected  with  and  dependent  upon  that  of  the  play 
impulse,  as  we  have  suggested,  then  the  amusements 
of  a  community  should  shed  considerable  light  on  the 
problem  of  framing  a  just  estimate  of  its  general  mental 
vitality.  It  may  be  profitable,  therefore,  to  reapproach 
our  subject  through  a  consideration  of  the  recreative 
activities  of  our  people.  In  the  palmy  days  of  Athens, 
Florence  and  Elizabethan  England,  when  the  spirit  of 
civic  or  national  enterprise  and  adventure  was  at  its 
height,  there  was  also  a  great  outburst  and  manifestation 
of  the  popular  expression  of  the  play-impulse  through 
the  loftiest  kinds  of  art.  Such  art  reflected  the  general 
sanity  and  vigour  of  the  people.  Now,  when  the  majority 
of  any  community  is  to  be  observed  spending  their  leisure 
in  organized  exercise  of  body  and  spirit  we  shall  always 
be  justified  in  concluding  that  their  morale  is  sound  and 
that  their  industry  and  commerce  are  both  a  stimulus 
and  a  satisfaction,  while  the  general  prevalence  at  any 
time  of  such  amusements  as  are  provided  by  cock-fighting 
and  bull-fighting  indicates,  we  may  be  tolerably  sure, 
a  lack  of  disciplined  intelligence  and  of  sympathy. 

It  will  hardly  be  denied  that  an  outstanding  feature 
of  the  more  popular  forms  of  modern  recreation  is  their 
call  for  the  merest  minimum  of  organized  mental  and 
physical  activity  on  the  part  of  their  participants.  In 
illustration  we  might  draw  attention  to  the  comparative 
docility  of  the  football  crowd  and  the  cinema  audience, 
or  instance  the  spread  of  the  gramophone,  all  of  which 

2CO 


THE  CREATIVE  IMPULSE  IN  INDUSTRY    201 

provide  merely  a  vicarious  exercise  of  the  play-impulse. 
The  weekly  half-holiday  which  supplies  to  hundreds  the 
opportunity  to  indulge  in  sports  and  games  sees  thousands 
flock  to  a  single  football  match.  Even  a  mid-week  first- 
class  game  will  draw  to-day  as  many  as  thirty  to  forty 
thousand  artisans  from  their  work  in  spite  of  appeals  and 
threats  of  dismissal.  In  addition,  another  fifty  to  one 
hundred  thousand  will  patiently  await  the  appearance 
of  the  evening  newspaper  to  get  at  second  hand  a  feeble 
experience  of  the  thrills  of  .the  game.  The  significant 
aspect  of  all  these  pastimes  is  that  90  per  cent,  of  the  able- 
bodied  persons  who  look  on  at  the  athletes,  or  read  about 
their  prowess,  take  part  in  no  active  games  or  recreations 
themselves. 

In  the  case  of  the  cinema,  which  is  rapidly  ousting  from 
popularity  all  competing  forms  of  indoor  amusement  in 
our  factory  towns,  we  see  the  appearance  of  a  type  of  enter- 
tainment which,  as  no  other  can,  provides  a  soft  mantle 
of  repose  for  the  overstrained  and  weary  worker  who  is 
enabled  to  sit  quietly  and  cheaply  in  security  and  in  semi- 
obscurity  and  be  lulled  into  forgetfulness  of  the  monotony 
of  his  existence.  Presented  with  a  story  which  makes 
but  few  demands  upon  his  reason,  memory  or  judgment, 
for  it  is  much  easier  for  a  tired  spectator  to  follow  the 
pictures  than  the  legitimate  drama,  he  is  invited  instead 
to  a  banquet  of  good  things  and  stimulated  into  taking 
an  interest  in  them.  To  a  man  or  woman  who  has  been 
working  at  high  pressure  on  tasks  involving  severe  con- 
centration of  mind  the  cinema  show  is  often  a  pleasant 
relaxation.  To  the  routine  worker  who  has  no  occasion 
or  ability  for  heavy  mental  work,  whose  days  are  spent 
in  repetition  labour  involving  neither  responsibility  nor 
judgment  to  any  marked  extent,  "  the  pictures  "  provide 
not  only  a  sedative,  but  also  a  certain  amount  of  spiritual 
nourishment  in  a  form  sufficiently  strong  for  him  to 
digest  satisfactorily. 

The  cinema  really  represents  the  spread  of  "  scientific 
management  "  into  the  world  of  art.  Like  Taylor,  the 


202    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

super-producer  in  the  world  of  art  sees  that  there  is  a 
demand  for  light  amusement  which  the  small,  badly- 
organized  and  comparatively  inefficient  travelling  com- 
panies cannot  supply  :  he  has,  therefore,  introduced  a 
labour-saving  method  whereby  a  few  well-paid  and  uniquely 
efficient  workers,  active  in  body,  brain  and  mind,  can 
do  with  the  aid  of  machinery  what  thousands  of  less 
efficient  actors  and  actresses  were  doing  poorly  ;  which, 
moreover,  can  supply  millions  of  persons  with  amusement 
while  they  were  only  supplying  it  to  hundreds.  It  is 
too  early  to  vote  the  experiment  a  success  from  all  points 
of  view.  One  may  wonder,  for  example,  what  the  effect 
of  the  cinema  will  in  the  long  run  be  on  the  growing 
mind  of  the  normal  child,  and  whether  he  will  eventually 
tire  of  it  and  demand  something  more  exacting,  or  not. 

The  gramophone  plays  much  the  same  part  :  it  provides 
with  the  minimum  discomfort,  or  rather  bodily  incon- 
venience to  the  listeners,  the  kind  of  music  they  want 
to  hear  ;  moreover,  it  becomes  accepted  as  a  permanent 
substitute,  in  many  cases,  for  artistic  self-expression. 
In  art,  then,  as  well  as  in  politics,  where  the  phenomenon 
has  long  been  remarked,  the  people  call  for  a  leader  or 
substitute  to  say  in  their  stead  what  they  dimly  feel 
or  would  like  to  feel  but  cannot  hope  to  utter  in  an 
authentic  manner. 

When  the  more  popular  forms  of  amusement  do 
involve  a  marked  degree  of  activity  in  their  participants, 
they  frequently  take  the  form  of  violent  reactions ; 
primarily  they  seem  to  be  pathological  protests  against 
the  drab  monotony  of  existence.  Even  the  spending  of 
leisure  is  an  art  which  has  to  be  learnt,  and  many  have 
not  the  intelligence  for  learning  it.  In  such  reactions 
there  appear  to  be  few  signs  of  organization  or  forethought  ; 
they  are  little  more  than  the  cry  from  the  bruised  heart. 
As  typical  of  this  kind  of  amusement  the  following  incident 
may  be  quoted.  At  the  news  of  the  armistice  in  Novem- 
ber 1918  some  Air  Force  officers  in  France  poured  petrol 
over  their  piano,  which  they  had  managed  to  purchase 


THE   CREATIVE   IMPULSE   IN   INDUSTRY    203 

after  considerable  difficulty  for  their  mess,  and  set  light 
to  it.  Then  they  danced  round  it  in  reckless  abandon- 
ment for  several  hours,  wildly  singing  songs  of  the  most 
ridiculous  character.  We  can  understand  and  when 
necessary  condone  such  an  action  if  we  view  it  as  merely 
expressive  of  a  sudden  relief  from  tension.  What  we  do 
not  so  easily  understand  or  forgive  are  the  bank  holiday 
revels  of  the  crowds  on  Hampstead  Heath  or  the  antics 
of  those  who  welcome  the  New  Year  with  cat-calls  and 
mafficking  on  the  steps  of  St.  .Paul's. 

As  a  form  of  protest-behaviour  directed  against  the 
monotony  of  existence,  as  some  find  it,  we  might,  of 
course,  instance  the  habit  of  gambling,  which  is  so  preva- 
lent among  those  lacking  in  healthy  interests.  Either 
because  they  are  without  an  occupation  which  has  the 
power  to  discipline  them  or  because  their  occupations 
discipline  them  too  much,  their  free  energy  finds  in  the 
habit  of  gambling  a  suitable  attachment.  It  is  not 
merely  the  wish  to  get  something  for  nothing  which 
animates  them,  but  the  desire  also  to  render  the  tedious 
passage  of  time  more  tolerable  by  having  something  to 
look  forward  to  and  think  about.  Another  form  of  pro- 
test behaviour  is  seen  in  frequent  drunkenness.  The 
prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic  in  so  far  as  it  affects  the 
drunkard  is  often  a  method  of  suppressing  the  symptoms 
of  psychic  unrest ;  and  consequently  it  is  natural  that 
we  should  find  the  statistics  for  crime  in  "  dry  "  districts 
increased  immediately  after  prohibition  sets  in,  as  they 
apparently  do.  The  habit  of  drinking  alcohol  is  not  the 
outcome  of  simple  depravity,  any  more  than  that  dance 
round  the  burning  piano  was.  Hundreds  of  thousands 
of  men  in  the  fighting  forces  learnt  to  drink  intoxicants 
for  the  first  time  during  the  war,  because  they  discovered 
that  the  practice  brought  with  it  a  heightened  sense  of 
vitality  and  confidence  when  the  world  was  blackest 
around  them.  Alcoholism  to-day  in  all  countries  in  the 
same  way  frequently  originates  as  a  defence-mechanism 
against  something  which  is  intolerable,  so  that  to  remove 


204    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

the  means  of  getting  relief  from  anxiety  without  attacking 
that  which  causes  it  is  neither  sound  psychology  nor 
wise  statesmanship.  It  may  be  said  with  a  fair  measure 
of  truth  that  nearly  all  our  industrial  troubles  to-day  are 
due  to  the  disappearance  of  satisfactions  to  which  men 
had  become  used,  and  the  absence  of  new  ones  to 
substitute  them. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  amusements  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  do  point  to  the  existence  of  something 
wrong  with  things  as  they  are.  They,  too,  indicate  the 
passing  of  the  older  forms  of  creative  self-expression. 
As  Dean  Inge  says,  we  are  incompletely  adapted  for  life 
under  present  conditions,  and  we  must,  if  we  are  to  rise 
above  merely  destructive  criticism,  analyse  these  condi- 
tions and  suggest  if  possible  how  they  may  be  ameliorated, 
so  that  man  can  satisfy  his  natural  interests  and  emotions. 
Can  we  alter  the  worker's  attitude  to  his  work  by  attention 
to  his  play  ?  Can  we  improve  his  powers  of  ready  adap- 
tation by  providing  better  amusements  which  by  their 
appeal  to  the  constructive  activities  of  men  and  women 
will  make  industry  more  endurable  ?  Many  firms,  with 
praiseworthy  motives,  have  organized  for  the  workers 
both  outdoor  and  indoor  sports  and  recreations,  dramatic 
and  musical  societies,  horticultural  and  photographic 
clubs,  literary  circles  and  rambling  parties.  On  this 
point  Mr.  Tead  observes : l  "  Apart  from  stated  recreational 
events  of  definite  business  value  as  advertising  or  as 
conducive  to  a  better  esprit  de  corps,  of  which  an  annual 
company  outing  is  an  example,  it  is,  however,  to  be 
doubted,  from  the  point  of  view  of  human  nature,  whether 
play  should  normally  attach  itself  to  industry  rather  than 
to  the  civic  or  neighbourhood  side  of  life.  There  seem  to  be 
sound  psychological  reasons  for  believing  that  the  relaxing, 
irresponsible  and  care-free  atmosphere  in  which  play 
thrives  centres  naturally  about  the  older,  more  natural, 
more  instinctive  human  groups — to  wit,  the  family  and 
the  neighbourhood — rather  than  about  such  a  completely 
1  Op.  dt.,  p.  175. 


THE   CREATIVE   IMPULSE   IN   INDUSTRY    205 

artificial  thing  as  the  modern  factory  in  a  large  city. 
Where  the  factory  exists  as  the  one  gathering  place  of  a 
mill-town  the  situation  is  manifestly  different,  and  recrea- 
tion can  function  differently.  But  in  the  typical  industrial 
city  the  social  and  recreative  life  normally  falls  into 
channels  of  home  or  lodge  or  neighbourhood,  and  little 
or  nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  forcing  the  creation  of  an 
industrial  recreative  unit." 

While  such  efforts  to  provide  forms  of  healthy  recrea- 
tion closely  in  touch  with  the  factory  are  admirable,  it 
should  not  be  forgotten  that  they  involve  an  undesirable 
limitation  of  the  worker's  circle  of  experience.  It  is  not 
good  for  us  to  move  always  in  the  same  restricted  social 
environment,  whether  "  high "  or  "  low."  Those  who 
have  had  the  experience  of  living  in  both  some  of  our 
cotton-mill  towns  where  there  is  just  one  industry  and 
practically  nothing  else  to  absorb  the  industrial  energies 
of  their  inhabitants,  and  in  neighbouring  towns,  too, 
where  there  happens  to  be  a  great  variety  of  occupations, 
in  factory  work  and  engineering,  in  railway  work  and 
shipping,  in  mining  and  flour  milling  as  well  as  in  spinning 
and  weaving  in  cotton  and  wool,  have  probably  realized 
the  importance  of  diversity  of  interest  among  people  as 
a  factor  in  stimulating  intelligence.  Variety  in  social 
intercourse  is  equally  necessary  ;  we  must  avoid  stereo- 
typing our  mental  contacts  and  so  circumscribing  unduly 
our  mental  outlook. 

If,  then,  as  we  have  suggested,  our  play  is  an  index  of 
our  mental  growth,  then  by  adding  to  and  improving  the 
worker's  opportunities  for  healthy  recreation  we  shall 
make  his  leisure  more  profitable  both  mentally  and 
physically,  and  his  increased  vitality  will  to  some  extent 
be  spilled  over  into  his  work.  But  we  cannot  in  this 
way  substantially  alter,  when  it  is  embittered,  the  worker's 
fundamental  attitude  towards  his  occupation.  If  work 
is  divorced  from  play  then  an  increased  interest  in  play 
is  not  likely  to  produce  any  permanently  increased 
interest  in  work. 


206  PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

We  have,  then,  by  some  means  or  other  to  recapture 
the  general  interest  which,  according  to  the  craftsmen, 
was  once  centred  in  the  enterprise  of  production,  to  ad- 
vance technology  and  restore  to  strength  man's  inven- 
tive powers,  which  are  fast  dwindling  among  all  but  those 
who  are  our  outstanding  intellectual  leaders  and  industrial 
organizers.  If,  as  we  have  repeatedly  suggested  in  these 
pages,  full  efficiency  depends  not  only  on  the  improvement 
of  workshop  conditions  and  economical  methods  of  labour 
(including  the  psychological  selection  of  the  workers 
for  their  tasks  and  the  tasks  for  the  workers),  but 
also  upon  attempts  to  secure  their  spirited  co-operation, 
then  we  shall  be  forced  sooner  or  later  to  reorganize 
industry  with  a  view  to  providing  scope  for  their  initiative 
and  satisfaction  for  their  ambitions.  How  can  this  be 
done  ?  The  development  of  definite  ideals  of  procedure 
by  the  workers  for  the  recovery  of  their  lost  initiative 
and  independence  indicates,  we  think,  the  road  by  which 
we  shall  be  forced  to  proceed. 


§  3.  IDEALS   IN   INDUSTRY 

Though  we  have  not  yet  discussed  all  the  forms  of 
instinctive  activity  to  be  observed  in  industry  which 
may  be  regarded  as  simple  and  primary — for  instance, 
there  still  remains  that  energizing  spirit  of  intelligence, 
the  instinct  of  curiosity,  responsible  in  its  more  refined 
forms  for  the  passion  which  prompts  scientific  research 
and  the  myriad  other  forms  of  educational  activity — 
we  may,  perhaps,  at  this  point  profitably  turn  our  atten- 
tion to  the  manner  in  which  we  are  able  to  convert  our 
native  endowment  of  crude  impulse  into  the  driving 
power  of  satisfactory  social  aims  and  ideals  of  a  con- 
structive nature.  Personality  finds  us  enduring  pleasure 
in  continually  moving  along  the  primitive  trails  and  react- 
ing in  unmixed  fear,  in  uncomplicated  repulsion,  in  an 
assertiveness  wholly  self-regarding,  or  in  pugnacity  sans 
phrase  ;  such  reactions  are  serviceable  enough,  maybe, 
in  times  of  extraordinary  danger,  but  for  meeting  intelli- 
gently the  ordinary  demands  of  civilized  life  they  are 
insufficiently  discriminative,  and  so  in  the  long  run  in- 
effective. Man,  as  compared  with  the  animals,  is  dis- 
tinguished by  his  ability  to  learn  readily  from  experience  ; 
hence  his  tendency  to  suspend  short-sighted  emotional 
impulse  in  favour  of  a  reasoned  response,  often  delayed, 
which  satisfies  several  simultaneously  aroused  impulses 
at  once.  Certain  familiar  objects  (or  persons)  habitually 
call  out  definite  complexes  of  elementary  emotion.  These 
complexes  are  embodied  in  "  points  of  view  ";  thus  the 
morality  and  the  conventions  of  the  social  group  are 
acquired  in  this  way,  and  with  the  growth  and  organiza- 


208    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

tion  of  our  mental  life  sustained  by  feeling,  but  moulded 
into  an  approvable  form  by  intelligence,  there  arise  the 
rational  forms  of  conduct  in  which  the  tendency  to  react 
blindly  and  unthinkingly  is  naturally  controlled  and  the 
impulses  which  otherwise  might  conflict  are  run  together 
harmoniously,  as  it  were,  in  a  team  with  a  single  objective. 
Thus,  devotion  to  a  person,  or  a  principle,  or  a  cause, 
will  short-circuit  all  our  pugnacity,  constructiveness, 
curiosity,  submissiveness,  and  so  on,  into  a  single  channel 
of  service.  It  is  when  an  object,  or  person,  or  principle 
excites  not  a  simple  emotional  response,  but  a  complex 
of  emotions  that  we  speak  of  the  latter  as  a  sentiment. 
A  sentiment  in  action  is  an  interest,  and  a  harmony  of 
sentiments  illuminated  by  reason  is  an  ideal. 

The  constructive  attitude  towards  industry,  representing 
as  it  does  the  due  subordination  of  unrefined  self-interest 
and  of  the  impulse  to  immediate  reaction,  so  that  purpose 
and  passion  and  reason  are  effectively  balanced  in  a  for- 
ward moving  tendency,  naturally  expresses  itself  through 
ideals.  All  the  participants  in  industry  who  give  thought 
to  their  position  and  their  deeper  feelings  develop  definite 
interests  and  ideals,  but  we  cannot  bring  about  the  indus- 
trial renaissance  which  we  hope  for  by  devotion  to  an  ideal 
which  embodies  one  type  of  interest  alone  and  ignores 
others,  for  interests  which  are  ignored  do  not  simply  drop 
out  of  existence,  they  are  much  more  likely  in  such 
circumstances  to  become  flagrantly  rebellious  and,  if 
deliberately  thwarted,  destructive  in  tendency.  Can 
management,  therefore,  afford  to  ignore  the  constructive 
interests  of  labour  ?  Or  can  labour  yet  safely  neglect 
the  adventurous  purpose  natural  to  management  ?  We 
shall  regress  to  the  anarchism  of  elementary  passion  unless 
we  can  contrive  a  working  synthesis  of  the  constructive 
interests  of  all  engaged  in  industry. 

What  is  apparently  needed,  then,  as  a  sound  remedy 
for  unrest  is  such  a  reorganization  both  of  our  indus- 
trial and  educational  systems  as  will  allow — nay, 
stimulate — every  employer  and  worker  into  seeking  his 


THE   CREATIVE   IMPULSE   IN   INDUSTRY    209 

salvation,  not  blindly  and  crudely  through  the  indulgence 
of  his  explosive  primitive  reactions  which  lead  nowhere 
except  into  disaster,  but  in  the  intelligent  pursuit  of  an 
aim  of  common  choice.  Till  this  consummation  can  be 
effected  humanity  will  continue  to  live  in  a  condition 
of  mal-adaptation  to  the  social  environment,  with  the 
prospect  facing  it  of  an  eventual  relapse  into  barbarism. 

Several  suggestive  proposals  for  the  re-organization 
of  industry,  however,  have  been  put  forward  by  men  of 
constructive  purpose,  and  to  a  brief  consideration  of  the 
psychological  aspects  of  these  proposals  we  must  now  pass. 


14 


§  4.  CO-PARTNERSHIP 

The  ideals  of  co-partnership  and  profit-sharing  represent 
a  praiseworthy  attempt  on  the  part  of  certain  employers 
to  create  a  deeper  interest  among  the  workers  in  the 
industry  in  which  they  are  employed  and  so  secure  their 
full  co-operation.  Bearing  in  mind  the  manifold  com- 
plexity of  human  nature,  however,  we  shall  not  be  surprised 
to  find  indisputable  psychological  defects  in  most  of 
the  co-partnership  schemes  which  have  been  launched, 
admirable  in  intention  as  they  are.  They  have  in  too 
many  cases  been  conceived  in  the  same  spirit  as  Taylor's 
wage-system,  that  is  to  say,  they  have  depended  for 
their  success  mainly,  in  fact  almost  exclusively,  upon 
the  worker's  desire  for  material  gain.1  Moreover,  many 
of  them  aim  at  the  destruction  of  labour  solidarity.1 

1  The  British  Government,  1920,  Report  on  Profit  Sharing  and 
Labour  Co-partnership  (Cmd.  554)  contains  a  classification  of  the 
reasons  for  the  failure  of  177  schemes.  As  many  as  91  failures 
are  described  as  due  to  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  either  em- 
ployees or  employers.  It  is  probable  that  many  of  the  other 
failures  could  be  accounted  for  in  a  similar  manner,  although  the 
reasons  given  for  them  were  ostensibly  financial.  (The  causes  in 
thirteen  cases  were  unknown  and  equally  probably  psychological.) 

The  general  conclusion  of  the  report  may  be  gathered  from  the 
following  quotation  (pp.  27-28)  :  "  On  the  whole,  it  must  be  con- 
cluded that  if  the  employer  looks  to  a  scheme  of  profit-sharing 
to  stimulate  his  workers  to  increased  exertion  and  to  maintain 
the  stimulus  for  a  long  period  of  years  he  is  not  unlikely  to  be  dis- 
appointed." 

a  "  On  the  whole  the  attitude  towards  Trade  Unions  of  em- 
ployers who  definitely  undertake  welfare  work  seems  to  be  more 
conciliatory  than  that  of  employers  who  enter  on  profit-sharing 
or  co-partnership  schemes  "  (Proud,  Welfare  Work,  p.  54). 

210 


THE  CREATIVE  IMPULSE  IN  INDUSTRY 

They  have  offered  a  partnership  which  is  not  a  partner- 
ship in  the  real  sense  of  the  word  at  all,  a  partnership  not 
in  the  common  responsibilities  of  formulating  policies 
and  making  decisions,  but  in  profits,  and  this  to  a  limited 
extent  only.  Now,  in  co-partnership,  as  Lord  Robert 
Cecil  said  in  the  second  Earl  Grey  Memorial  Lecture, 
"  the  broad  principle  that  capital  and  labour  must  be 
treated  on  equal  terms  is  the  essential  thing." 

Even  the  co-operative  movement,  which  was  initiated 
with  the  force  of  the  ideal  of  fraternalism  to  give  it  driving 
power,  has  largely  become  sterile  as  a  regenerating  agent 
in  society,  owing  to  the  confinement  of  the  appeal  for 
public  support  to-day  to  the  desire  for  material  gain  : 
benefits  are  dangled  before  the  members  more  frequently 
than  the  idea  of  mutual  aid  is  preached  to  them.1  The 
workers  will  never  be  won  over  to  the  whole-hearted  service 
in  industry  through  co-partnership  as  long  as  the  latter 
simply  involves  sharing  the  profits  of  business.  Men 
will  continue  to  regard  all  co-partnership  schemes  as 
attempts  to  bribe  them  into  giving  up  their  independence. 
That  such  an  attitude  is  a  wrong  one  is  of  small  impor- 
tance beside  the  fact  that  it  is  a  potentially  dynamic 
attitude.  Consequently  such  schemes  must  be  based 
on  the  cash  payment  plan  to  win  any  measure  of  accept- 
ance. Yet  this  being  so,  they  will  always  offer  in  the 
main  rather  the  shadow  than  the  genuine  substance  which 
will  alone  satisfy  the  baulked  instinctive  tendencies  of 
the  workers.  Other  additional  motives  must  be  enlisted 
in  the  support  of  schemes  for  the  betterment  of  industry 
if  they  are  to  secure  enduring  support  from  an  educated 
democracy. 

The  experience  of  the  Thomson  woollen  firm  at  Hudders- 
field  points  the  moral  that  you  cannot  breed  loyalty  and 
idealism  by  cash  payment  alone.  The  results  of  the 
Thomson  venture  in  co-partnership  are  significant. 

1  This  now  needs  modification  in  view  of  the  financial  support 
which  is  being  rendered  to  the  Building  Guilds  set  up  in  various 
parts  of  the  country. 


212    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

The  head  of  the  firm  took  his  workers  into  real  partnership. 
He  drew  by  arrangement  a  salary  of  £500  a  year  as  manager, 
and  nothing  more  from  the  business,  and  opened  his 
books  to  inspection.  The  workers  were  won  over  by  his 
complete  sincerity  :  the  way  was  opened  to  them  for 
the  full  expression  of  their  intelligence,  and  on  one  or 
two  occasions  when  there  were  losses  on  the  year's  trans- 
actions they  voluntarily  made  them  up  out  of  their  own 
earnings.  The  amount  which  they  contributed  in  this 
way,  £1,400,  was  returned  when  the  firm  began  to  make 
profits  in  1912. 

In  the  light  of  the  foregoing  remarks  the  Manchester 
Building  Guild  Scheme  is  a  most  extraordinarily  interesting 
experiment.  The  essence  of  the  scheme  as  originally 
formulated  is  that  houses  are  to  be  built  at  net  cost, 
excluding  profit  (that  is  to  say,  cost  of  labour  and  materials), 
plus  10  per  cent.  This  10  per  cent,  would  be  utilized 
to  meet  management  expenses,  cover  the  purchase  of 
plant,  and  fulfil  obligations  which  the  Guild  would  under- 
take towards  its  workmen  (in  sickness,  unemployment, 
etc.).  The  constructive  spirit  which  informs  the  scheme 
shows  itself  also  in  the  revolt  against  bad  workmanship 
and  speculative  jerry-building,  which  has  been  voiced 
by  its  promoters,  so  that  if  the  enterprise  is  successful 
we  may  look  to  a  revival  of  the  spirit  of  co-operative 
craftsmanship  in  spite  of  the  decay  of  the  old-time  crafts. 

The  principles,  objects,  and  progress  of  the  Building  Guild, 
which  at  last  has  overcome  all  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  its  getting 
to  work,  are  set  forth  in  a  voluminous  report  which  has  just  been 
issued  from  the  headquarters  of  the  Guild  in  Manchester. 

"  The  Guild,"  concludes  the  report,  "  declares  that  it  has  a 
definite  duty  to  the  community  and  to  its  fellow  workers  in  other 
industries.  This  duty  is  best  accomplished,  not  by  abrogating 
the  rights  of  self-government  with  what  that  properly  involves, 
but  by  returning  to  the  community  all  and  any  surplus  over  the 
cost  of  production.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  it  has  steadily  re- 
fused to  build  houses  at  a  profit.  In  every  case  it  has  tendered 
on  the  basis  of  cost.  Not  commercial  cost,  which  takes  no  account 
of  wet  time,  or  unemployment,  or  sickness,  which  is  callously 
calculated  merely  upon  the  commodity  valuation  of  labour  at  so 


THE   CREATIVE   IMPULSE   IN   INDUSTRY    213 

much  per  hour  plus  the  cost  of  raw  materials,  but  upon  the  social 
cost  of  labour,  which  includes  these  factors  and  vicissitudes.  Be- 
yond that,  labour  has  no  claim  ;  the  Guild  makes  no  claim.  Even 
the  plant  is  vested  in  trustees,  who  must  see  that  it  is  used  for 
public  and  not  for  selfish  purposes. 

"  Finally,  the  Guild  declares  that  true  craftsmanship  must  be 
revived.  There  is  no  reason,  save  only  the  profiteering  greed 
of  modern  capitalism,  why  building  guildsmen  should  not  equal 
or  surpass  the  triumphs  of  the  mediaeval  period.  But  to  attain 
this  the  National  Building  Guild  must  control  not  only  its  mature, 
but  its  immature  labour.  All  technical  instruction  and  training 
must  come  under  the  Guild's  jurisdiction. 

"  The  Guild  is  the  only  alternative  to  the  existing  capitalist 
system.  But  it  will  fail  unless,  with  self-government  and  wage 
abolition,  it  also  revives  the  spirit  of  craftsmanship,  which  can 
only  come  in  good  fellowship  and  mutual  aid."  (Report,  Man- 
chester Guardian,  August  16,  1920.) 

The  genuine  kind  of  co-partnership  which  involves 
the  right  to  be  consulted  about  affairs  of  common  interest 
peeps  at  us  through  the  report  of  such  experiments  as 
indicated  in  the  Thomson  and  the  Building  Guild  experi- 
ments and  in  the  following  passage  from  the  publication 
of  an  American  firm  : — 

The  manner  in  which  the  men  are  treated  largely  determines 
the  success  of  the  manager  or  foreman.  Certain  methods  have 
been  acquired  from  the  environment,  education,  or  training,  and 
they  are  followed.  They  secure  results,  but  not  the  best.  Yet 
these  managers  know  no  other  way.  The  Filene  Co-operative 
Association  of  Boston  is  an  instance  of  reversal  of  traditional 
business  habits.  The  William  Filene's  Son's  Company  decided 
to  give  the  men  and  women  behind  the  counter  of  their  depart- 
ment store  a  voice  in  shaping  the  policies  of  the  store.  The  asso- 
ciation, composed  of  members  of  the  firm  and  of  all  employees, 
may  initiate  or  amend  any  rule  that  affects  the  efficiency  of  em- 
ployees. The  decision  passed  by  the  council  may  be  vetoed  by 
the  management,  but  if  after  such  a  veto  the  association  passes 
it  over  the  veto  by  a  two-thirds  vote,  the  decision  of  the  associa- 
tion is  final.  The  plan  made  a  sudden  break  from  traditional 
business  methods,  yet  it  succeeded.  A  single  instance  will  show 
how  admirably  and  reasonably  the  employees  have  responded. 

The  question  of  vote  was  whether  the  store  should  be  closed 
all  day  Saturday,  June  iSth,  the  day  preceding  being  Bunker's 


214    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

Hill  Day,  a  State  holiday.  If  this  were  done  it  would  give  the 
employees  a  three-day  holiday.  .  .  .  Agitation  had  been  quite 
intense  during  the  days  preceding  the  meeting,  for  the  employees 
were  naturally  interested  in  having  the  additional  day's  rest  with 
pay ;  the  meeting  was  to  hear  both  sides  of  the  case  to  decide.  After 
those  in  favour  of  closing  had  made  their  plea,  those  opposed 
brought  out  an  argument  few  had  considered,  the  fact  that  the 
conditions  were  not  analogous.  It  was  pointed  out  that  a  Saturday 
in  the  middle  of  June  was  much  more  valuable  and  costly  to  lose 
than  one  in  July,  that  it  was  the  last  of  the  Saturdays  before  the 
bulk  of  the  school  graduations,  and  that  much  more  business  would 
in  all  probability  be  lost.  When  the  vote  was  taken  the  employees 
voted  by  an  overwhelming  majority  not  to  have  the  extra  holi- 
day !  ... 

Employers,  then,  who  initiate  co-partnership  schemes 
must  be  prepared  to  move  along  the  common  road  to- 
wards a  real  industrial  democracy  if  they  wish  to  make 
the  venture  a  psychological  success.  The  fact  must  not 
be  overlooked  that  the  opposition  of  the  trade  unions  to 
co-partnership  and  bonus  schemes  cannot  be  overcome 
unless  it  is  patently  clear  that  the  initiation  of  those  schemes 
is  not  merely  a  tactical  move  on  the  part  of  employers 
to  break  up  the  solidarity  of  labour.  In  so  far  as  such 
schemes  lead  men  to  work  harder  and  with  greater  loyalty 
to  their  employers  they  are  good  ;  but  it  is  a  mistake  to 
attempt  to  secure  this  result  at  the  expense  of  loyalty 
to  the  interests  of  fellow  workers.  The  attempt  must 
also  be  made  to  show  that  profit-sharing  is  not  merely 
the  giving  (with  an  eye  to  its  advertisement  value)  of 
what  has  really  been  earned. 


§  5.  STATE   SOCIALISM 

For  a  reason  much  the  same  as  that  which  makes  the 
general  principle  of  co-partnership  as  we  see  it  to-day  in 
most  of  its  forms  only  partially  satisfactory  as  a  solution 
to  our  industrial  problems,  the  ideal  of  state  socialism 
will  prove  equally  illusory.  Both  plans  neglect  to  take 
into  consideration  the  existence  of  certain  fundamental 
tendencies  of  human  nature,  the  main  point  of  difference 
being  that  whereas  co-partnership  depends  for  its  success 
almost  exclusively  on  self-interest  and  the  desire  for 
individual  material  gain,  state  socialism  tends  to  exclude 
these  motives  from  the  grounds  of  its  appeal.  The 
advocates  of  the  one  aim  too  high,  those  of  the  other  too 
low.1  But  we  have  already  attempted  to  show  that 
practically  all  our  industrial  trouble  has  arisen  either 
from  the  deliberate  thwarting  or  neglect  of  innate  ten- 
dencies which  we  possess  in  forms  powerful  enough  to 
survive  with  all  their  original  strength  the  passage  of 
centuries. 

There  is,  however,  in  addition  another  psychological 
defect  which  state  socialism  will  find  it  extremely  difficult 
to  eradicate  from  its  constitution  :  it  threatens  to  deper- 
sonalize our  public  services.  All  our  relations  with  state 
departments  notoriously  become  stiff  and  formal  in  time. 

1  From  a  weekly  newspaper  we  take  the  following  :  Mr.  Withers, 
the  author  of  The  Case  for  Capitalism,  was  once  asked  on  a  lecturing 
tour  at  the  front  why  wage-earners  should  not  be  paid  just  as 
soldiers  are  paid.  "  Everybody  knows,"  he  answered,  "  how  you 
soldiers  work  when  you  are  fighting,  but  when  you  go  out  to  do 

fatigue  work "      A  roar  of  laughter  from  the  rest  of  the  audience 

made  the  roof  of  the  hut  ring,  and  left  nothing  more  for  him  to  say. 

215 


216    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

Experience  has  shown  that  the  bureaucrat  invariably 
tends  to  work  mechanically  in  accordance  with  the  letter 
of  the  regulation  and  the  law  as  a  means  of  safeguarding 
himself,  and  cannot  be  relied  upon  to  show  any  greater 
sympathy  towards  his  subordinates  or  the  public  than 
the  worst  of  employers.  There  is  accordingly  gathering 
a  considerable  wave  of  feeling  which  may  swamp  com- 
pletely what  enthusiasm  has  hitherto  existed  in  favour 
of  state  socialism,  of  fear  that  it  may  involve,  on  the 
one  hand,  an  excessive  centralization  of  power,  and  on 
the  other,  local  docility  and  ineptitude. 

It  is  the  mechanism  of  a  perfect  state  which  in  its  best 
known  forms  state  socialism  shows  us.  It  is  quite  obvious 
that  the  parts  are  of  excellent  construction  and  fit  admir- 
ably. The  ingenuity  of  the  whole  contrivance  moves  us  to 
astonishment,  but  it  is  not  certain  that  human  nature  will 
ever  make  it  work.  It  seems  to  work  beautifully  enough, 
it  is  true,  in  the  Utopias  of  Bellamy  and  Blatchford  and 
others.  There,  however,  we  see  it  in  full  running  order. 
If  state  socialism  to-day  were  found  in  running  order, 
we,  too,  might  be  able  to  maintain  the  miracle,  but  our 
simple  trouble,  which  it. passes  the  wit  of  man  at  his  pre- 
sent stage  of  evolution  to  overcome,  is  to  discover  how  to 
set  such  a  machine  initially  in  motion.  State  socialism, 
that  is  to  say,  provides  us  with  the  mechanism  of  a  perfect 
society,  but  we  have  not  yet  developed  the  spirit  which 
will  match  it.  Nevertheless,  it  is  apparent  to  all  that  we 
need  better  social  machinery  than  we  have  at  present, 
the  only  practical  point  of  advantage  about  the  old  dis- 
credited machine  being  that  since  we  cannot  build  up  a 
new  one  immediately  to  the  taste  of  everybody,  we  can 
at  least  continue  to  remodel  gradually  what  we  have  till 
we  have  thus  built  up  out  of  the  indispensable  elements 
of  the  old  and  the  best  elements  of  the  new  something 
which  may  be  better  than  either. 


§  6.   SYNDICALISM 

Syndicalism,  another  ideal  which  has  secured  much 
popular  support  and  devotion,  is  also  the  expression  of  a 
restricted  range  of  interests  ;  it  is  motived  too  much  by 
the  human  tendencies  of  the  workers  towards  the  owner- 
ship and  self-assertion  and  too  little  by  the  equally  human 
protective  and  constructive  tendencies  already  operative. 
It  appeals  to  organized  labour  because  it  promises  to  the 
workers  full  control  of  the  industry  in  which  they  are 
engaged,  but  in  the  extreme  forms  in  which  it  is  usually 
expressed  there  undoubtedly  lurks  the  possibility  of  its 
splitting  the  community  into  antagonistic  sections,  for 
conflicts  between  the  workers  in  any  one  industry  and  the 
consumers  of  their  product  would  be  rendered  inevitable. 
The  movement  towards  Syndicalism,  however,  in  these 
forms  is  a  reaction  phenomenon,  and  comes  most  into 
evidence  during  strikes  and  lock-outs.  In  its  impulsive 
forms  it  shows  itself  blind  to  the  necessity  for  securing  the 
co-operation  of  the  organizer  and  the  administration  in 
its  effects.  During  such  times  speech  often  becomes  in- 
temperate and  idealism  incoherent  in  its  expression.  In 
calmer  times  and  in  happier  circumstances  we  shall  hear 
little  of  the  violent  aspects  of  it.  Thus  it  was  during 
a  "  strike  wave  "  that  Mr.  J.  H.  Thomas  gave  utterance 
to  the  crudest  type  of  Syndicalism  at  Leyton.1  "  The 
N.U.R.,"  he  said,  "  would  not  be  a  party  to  giving  cheap 
travelling  facilities  to  the  public  at  the  expense  of  the 
sweated  railwaymen."  We  quote  these  words  to  illustrate 
the  tendency  of  the  syndicalist  spirit  towards  sectionalism. 

*  Report  of  speech  at  Leyton,  February  8,   1920, 
317 


218    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

To  emphasize  under  the  influence  of  emotion  a  divergence 
of  interests  between  any  one  class  of  workers  and  the 
rest  of  the  community  is  distinctly  unwise  and  harmful. 
It  is  usually  believed  that  it  is  the  characteristic  vice 
of  the  bureaucrat,  and  of  him  alone,  to  formulate  plans 
and  impose  them  on  the  public  regardless  of  convenience. 
Thus  the  suddenly  announced  decision  in  August  last  to 
raise  railway  fares  revealed  a  fundamental  lack  of  psy- 
chological insight  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  as  was 
apparent  from  the  immediate  reaction  of  the  irritated 
community.  But  the  labour  leader,  too,  needs  to  take 
more  intimately  into  account  the  condition  of  the 
public  mind  when  he  is  about  to  declare  a  move  on 
behalf  of  his  union.  The  lightning-strike,  which  is  a 
popular  weapon  among  those  who  have  used  it,  may 
have  great  mechanical  consequences,  but  it  invariably 
alienates  the  suffering  public.  Always  to  consider  the 
public  well-being  is  without  the  least  doubt  the  best 
industrial  policy.  Happily,  many  of  the  leaders  of  the 
workers  are  beginning  to  see  that  our  interests  all  hang 
together,  and  that  only  solutions  which  benefit  all  will 
be  effective  in  the  long  run. 


§  7.  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

What  ultimate  form  the  organization  of  industry 
will  assume  we  cannot  tell,  but  the  present  tendency  is 
towards  the  ideal  of  constructive  co-operation.  The 
demand  of  labour  for  a  share  in  the  responsible  control 
of  industry  is  the  recognition  of  an  identity  of  interest 
between  employers  and  employed.  To-day  we  have  two 
vital  movements  towards  a  more  harmonious  and  effective 
association  of  workers  and  management  represented  in 
Guild  Socialism  which  combines  the  advantages  of  syn- 
dicalism and  state  socialism  without  their  disadvantages  x 
and  the  Whitley  Councils,  the  latter  providing  the  possibility 
of  reform  from  within  the  present  system,  the  former 
frankly  more  hostile  to  it.  Both  offer  the  workers  oppor- 
tunities for  the  satisfaction  of  something  of  their  desire 
for  a  share  in  the  control  of  industry  and  a  scientific  under- 
standing of  its  problems.  For  what  is  lost  through  the 
disintegration  of  the  old  crafts  both  substitute  the  sense 
of  co-operation  in  the  vital  activities  of  re-construction. 
The  comparative  values  of  the  schemes  is  a  matter  for 

1  "  A  guild  is  a  combination  of  all  the  labour  of  every  kind, 
administrative,  executive,  and  productive,  in  any  particular  in- 
dustry. .  .  .  The  State,  as  trustee  for  the  whole  community,  by 
charter  (the  terms  being  mutually  agreed  upon)  hands  over  to 
this  Guild  all  the  plant,  material,  and  assets  generally  cognate 
to  the  industry  "  (National  Guilds,  p.  298).  "  The  active  principle 
of  the  Guild  is  industrial  democracy.  Herein  it  differs  from  State 
Socialism  or  Collectivism.  In  the  one  case  the  control  comes 
from  without  and  is  essentially  bureaucratic  ;  in  the  other,  the 
Guild  manages  its  own  affairs.  ...  It  rejects  State  bureaucracy ; 
but  on  the  other  hand  it  rejects  Syndicalism  because  it  accepts 
co-management  with  the  State.  .  .  ."  (p.  132). 

319 


220    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

estimation  by  the  technicians  of  industry.  It  may  be, 
however,  that  force  and  not  reason  may  decide  whether 
either  or  neither  scheme  will  survive. 

An  interesting  illustration  of  the  point  of  view  of  the 
Guild  propagandist,  though  it  does  not  reveal  the  technique 
of  the  Guild  method,  is  to  be  found  in  Mr.  G.  D.  H.  Cole's 
evidence  before  the  1919  Coal  Industry  Commission, 
from  which  we  may  perhaps  take  the  following 
paragraphs  : — 

14.  In  short,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  coal  consumer  and 
of  the  community  as  a  whole,  the  only  way  of  securing  efficiency 
in  production — perhaps  the  only  way  of  securing  at  all  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  industry — is  to  enlist  the  active  co-operation  of  the 
workers  by  agreeing  at  once  to  the  assumption  by  them  of  a  sub- 
stantial share  in  control. 

15.  I  shall  now  attempt  to  state  the  case  for  direct  participation 
in  control  from  the  standpoint  of  the  worker  himself.     Human 
freedom,  where  it  exists,  is  not  a  name,  but  a  living  reality.     It 
implies,  not  the  absence  of  discipline  or  restraint  either  by  the 
individual  himself  or  by  some  group  of  which  he  forms,  and  feels 
himself  to  form,  a  part.     A  democratic  or  "  free  "  system  of  govern- 
ment is  one  in  which  every  individual  not  only  has  a  share  or  vote, 
but  also  feels  that  his  share  or  vote  is  of  some  effect  by  virtue  of 
his  community  with  his  fellow  sharers  or  fellow  voters. 

1 6.  This  principle  of  freedom  should  apply  to  industrial  organi- 
zation, which  forms  in  a  modern  community  so  important  and  so 
insistent  a  part  of  a  man's  life.     It  does  not  apply  under  the  exist- 
ing system  of  conducting  industry  ;   and  it  cannot  be  made  to  apply 
fully  in  a  day  or  a  year.     But  it  should  be  our  object  to  apply  it  as 
fully  as  we  can,  and  ever  more  fully. 

17.  If,  then,  a  man  must  receive  orders,  he  must,  if  he  is  to  be 
free,  feel  that  these  orders  come  from  himself  or  from  some  group 
of  which  he  feels  himself  to  be  a  part,  or  from  some  person  whose 
right  to  give  orders  is  recognized  and  sustained  by  himself  and  by 
such  a  group.     This  means  that  free  industrial  organization  must 
be  built  on  the  co-operation,  and  not  merely  on  the  acquiescence 
of  the  ordinary  man,  from  the  individual  and  the  pit  up  to  the 
larger  units. 

1 8.  Only  the  increasing  adoption  of  this  method  of  industrial 
organization  can  give  the  sense  of  fair  treatment  and  active  co- 
operation to  the  workers,   and  thereby  through  the  removal  of 
unrest  and  the  stimulation  of  effort,  efficient  production  and  service 
to  the  consumer  and  to  the  community. 


THE  CREATIVE  IMPULSE  IN  INDUSTRY    221 

The  Whitley  Reports  of  the  Reconstruction  Sub- 
committee appointed  by  the  Government  open  the  door 
to  a  gradual  solution  of  our  problems,  though  in  themselves 
they  are  no  remedy  for  existing  evils.  They  advocate 
the  setting  up  of  industrial  councils  in  which  employers 
and  employees  can  meet  and  discuss  matters  of  mutual 
concern,  wisely  anticipating  misunderstanding  and  local- 
izing ill-feeling.  The  reports  have  been  favourably 
received  by  the  greater  bulk  of  public  opinion  ;  some 
sceptical  employers  and  irreconcilable  workmen,  ever 
anxious  to  preserve  class  conflict,  still  hold  back,  how- 
ever, from  experiment  along  the  lines  suggested.1 

Three  types  of  council  are  being  set  up  in  each  industry 
to  give  actuality  to  the  Whitley  suggestions :  (i)  The 
Joint  Workshops  Committee,  the  function  of  which  is 
to  secure  industrial  harmony  in  the  management  of  the 
workshop,  so  that  questions  of  discipline  and  welfare  and 
minor  legislative  work  for  the  settlement  of  grievances 
fall  naturally  to  it ;  (2)  the  Joint  District  Councils,  which 
will  deal  with  problems  affecting  the  natural  industrial 
areas  (e.g.  the  Clyde  or  the  Tyne  shipbuilding  areas, 
or  the  South  Wales  or  the  Staffordshire  coalfields)  ;  and 
(3)  the  National  Councils  for  each  industry  as  a  whole. 
The  great  advantage  of  these  councils  is  that  they  will 
work  without  a  preconceived  theory  of  what  our  industrial 
system  ought  to  be.  All  engaged  on  them  can,  therefore, 
join  forces  to  hammer  out  a  common  policy. 

It  must  be  obvious  that  the  success  of  the  Joint  Council 
movement  will  depend  fundamentally  on  the  smooth 
and  effective  working  of  the  workshops  committees,  which 
will  naturally  be  in  closest  touch  with  the  problems  per- 
sonally affecting  the  workers,  for  grievances  must  be 
dealt  with  at  the  source.  It  is  through  these  committees 
that  we  shall  get  eventually  a  restoration  of  the  common 
interest  of  all  concerned  in  our  social  and  industrial  pro- 
blems. The  dissociated  interests  of  labour  and  manage- 

1  Trade  Unionists  in  some  instances  hold  that  the  councils 
are  unduly  expensive  and  absorb  too  much  of  the  time  of  officials. 


222    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRY 

ment  can  be  brought  together  again  and  fused  into  unity 
only  through  personal  contact  between  the  leaders  and 
the  workmen,  and  this  personal  contact  has  ceased  to 
count  for  much  since  the  advent  of  the  joint  stock  company, 
a  device  which  has  largely  dehumanized  our  industrial 
relations.  When  firms  are  small,  and  the  principal  pro- 
prietor is  actively  engaged  in  the  superintendence  of 
the  work  being  done,  it  is  possible  to  make  those  employed 
feel  that  they  are  more  than  mere  cogs  in  the  great  wheel 
of  the  machine  of  production,1  being  rather  partners  in  a 
common  enterprise  ;  but  where  thousands  of  people  are 
engaged  and  controlled  by  the  officials  of  a  firm  which  is 
itself  just  a  unit  in  a  corporate  body,  then,  if  industrial 
harmony  is  to  be  ensured,  the  establishment  of  works 
committees  on  Whitley  lines  is  imperative.  The  gain 
through  the  Joint  Council  to  the  capable  employer  will 
be  that  he  will  be  given  the  opportunity  of  proving  to 
the  satisfaction  of  his  workmen  that  he  is  a  captain  of 
industry  and  an  adventurer  making  for  worthy  goals, 
rather  than,  as  he  is  sometimes  depicted,  a  blood-sucking 
parasite  quite  superfluous  to  our  life. 

But  Whitleyism  will  only  be  a  complete  success  if  it 
renders  possible  the  responsible  association  of  the  workers 
in  the  creative  adventure  of  production.  Such  association 
alone  will  sober  the  irresponsible,  widen  the  outlook  of 
all  engaged,  and  satisfy  the  legitimate  aspirations  of  those 
who  find  little  to  satisfy  permanently  any  rational  interest 
in  the  work  which  falls  to  their  share  in  the  factory.  Other- 
wise "  self-determination  in  industry,"  not  as  it  is  expressed 
in  the  paragraphs  which  we  have  quoted  from  Mr.  Cole's 
evidence  before  the  Coal  Commission,  but  in  a  more  syndi- 
calist form,  is  accordingly  likely  to  be  the  battlecry  of 
the  labour  politicians  for  the  future. 

1  Thus  to  quote  from  an  engineering  journal :  "  It  was  possible 
for  Mr.  William  Armstrong  to  know  personally  and  to  sympathize 
personally  with  three  or  four  hundred  workmen,  but  it  was  quite 
impossible  for  Lord  Armstrong  to  know  ten  thousand  workmen, 
and  equally  impossible  for  them  to  know  him." 


THE  CREATIVE  IMPULSE  IN   INDUSTRY    223 

It  must  seem,  then,  that  industrial  democracy  is  about 
to  assume  form  among  us  as  political  democracy  has 
already  done  (though  we  have  by  no  means  completely 
democratized  politics).  Yet,  just  as  we  have  the  machinery 
for  expressing  the  political  will  of  the  people  even  if  there 
is  as  yet  no  general  political  will  worth  expressing,  so  the 
creation  of  the  means  for  the  expression  of  industrial 
ideals  must  precede  their  effective  expression.  The 
industrial  will  of  the  people  is  likely  to  make  itself 
felt  only  in  the  most  clumsy  fashion  for  many  years  to 
come.  But  there  is  also  demanded  an  intelligent  and 
courageous  attempt  to  construct  locally  such  mechanisms 
of  procedure  in  addition  to  Whitley  Works  Committees 
for  the  expression  of  the  individual  feelings  of  those 
concerned  in  democratized  industry  that  personal  friction 
will  be  reduced  to  a  minimum.  Consequently,  there  is 
an  urgent  need  for  educating  in  the  widest  possible  manner 
the  people  who  are  to  be  responsible  for  industry  in  the 
difficult  days  before  us  ;  the  call  for  men  who  will  be 
able  to  display  constructive  capacity  in  the  organization 
of  production  was  never  more  insistent. 

The  great  adventure  of  large-scale  industry,  with  its 
countless  processes  of  almost  miraculous  ingenuity  and 
its  wide  range  of  possibilities  yet  unexplored,  must  still 
be  carried  on  with  as  much  enthusiasm  as  ever,  but  it 
must  be  carried  on  by  an  army  of  intelligent  workers 
with  a  high  morale  and  a  capacity  for  insight  and  invention. 
Industry  has  always  been  one  of  the  chief  instruments  of 
culture  and  civilization,  and  will  continue  to  be  indis- 
pensable to  our  continued  development.  But  while  the 
stream  of  life  is  still  flowing  strongly  in  the  centre,  there 
is  a  dead  weight  of  inert  humanity  gradually  accumulating 
at  the  sides  which  must  be  borne  along  with  it.  In  all 
the  great  cities  of  the  world  there  is  being  produced  a 
distinctly  low-grade  type  of  worker  fit  for  little  else  but 
routine  occupations.  Far  too  many  of  our  people  to-day 
are  living  mechanical  lives  on  the  big  slag  heaps  which 
we  call  our  centres  of  industry,  cut  off  from  culture  in 


224    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

every  form,  the  dulness  of  their  existence  broken  occa- 
sionally only  by  bursts  of  pathological  excitement.  In 
addition,  therefore,  to  increasing  opportunities  for  self- 
government  in  industry  we  must  provide  for  the  possibility 
of  self-development  for  all  through  a  national  system  of 
adolescent  and  adult  education.  We  may  then  begin 
to  speak  of  industry  as  a  democracy  organized  for  public 
service. 

REFERENCES 

BRANFORD,  B. :  A  New  Chapter  in  the  Science  of  Government. 
COLE,  G.  D.  H. :  Self -Government  in  Industry;     Social  Theory. 
KROPOTKIN,  P. :  Fields,  Factories  and  Workshops. 
MANCHESTER  UNIVERSITY  PRESS  :  Labour  and  Industry. 
MAROT,  H. :  Creative  Impulse  in  Industry. 
ORAGE,  A.  and  HOBSON,  S.  G. :  National  Guilds. 
VEBLEN,  T. :  The  Instinct  of  Workmanship. 

WEBB,  S.  &  B. :  A   Constitution  for  the  Socialist  Commonwealth  of 
Great  Britain. 


§8.    INDUSTRIAL   EDUCATION 

In  our  attempt  to  make  the  men  and  women  of  to- 
morrow fit  for  industrial  democracy  we  must  provide  the 
education  which  on  the  one  hand  will  enable  the  boys  and 
girls  of  the  nation  to  free  themselves  from  exploitation 
and  equip  themselves  for  expert  service  in  a  definite 
vocation,  and  on  the  other  supply  the  specialized  training 
which  will  be  necessary  for  those  who  will  be  called  upon 
to  assume  responsible  control  of  the  industrial  machine. 
At  the  present  moment  we  are  prepared  for  undertaking 
neither  of  these  difficult  tasks. 

Our  industrial  leaders  have  not  yet  given  serious  thought 
to  the  efficient  recruitment  of  the  ranks  either  of  the 
workers  or  of  the  technicians.  For  example,  in  the 
mediaeval  guilds  the  boy  who  wished  to  learn  a  craft 
found  an  enthusiastic  circle  of  teachers  intent  upon  help- 
ing him  to  become  an  efficient  workman  or  merchant ;  in 
the  modern  factory  he  finds  in  most  cases  no  personal 
interest  at  all  displayed  in  his  ambitions,  but  only  the 
desire  to  exploit  to  the  full  what  natural  aptitude  he 
possesses  and  leave  him  when  grown  to  manhood  with 
nothing  but  a  low  order  of  routine  skill  as  his  best  instru- 
ment for  gaining  a  livelihood. 

The  pressure  of  the  untoward  events  of  recent  years 
has,  moreover,  forced  us  to  a  consideration  of  the  problems 
of  industrial  training.  The  Ministry  of  Labour *  has 
issued  during  the  past  few  years  a  series  of  reports  upon 
what  is  being  done  and  left  undone  in  this  matter.  From 
a  reading  of  these  we  shall  gather  how  premature  and 
J  See,  e.g.,  Ministry  of  Labour,  J.E.C.  13. 

15  225 


226    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

platitudinous  it  is  to  talk  about  a  race  of  educated  workers 
eager  for  the  advancement  of  technology  and  civilization. 
A  Government  investigation  of  the  conditions  under  which 
roughly  one  hundred  thousand  boys  were  being  employed 
by  nine  hundred  firms  revealed  the  fact  that  only  about 
one-third  of  these  boys  were  being  treated  by  their  em- 
ployers as  having  a  right  to  definite  training  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  earning  their  livelihood,  while  nearly  10  per  cent, 
were  employed  under  conditions  which  in  time  would 
render  them  unfit  for  responsible  citizenship  and  make 
their  subsequent  permanent  inefficiency  or  vagabondage 
inevitable.  Yet  we  must  provide  a  continuous  supply 
of  men  and  women  of  skill,  enterprise  and  intelligence  if 
we  are  to  sustain  industry  at  a  high  level  of  achievement ; 
so  that  to  condemn,  through  lack  of  adequate  training, 
the  majority  of  our  people  to  unvaried  repetition  work 
and  to  neglect  thereafter  the  culture  of  their  rational 
interests,  is  to  be  guilty  of  the  positive  act  of  ensuring 
national  degeneration  of  both  body  and  mind. 

It  is  a  duty  upon  which  we  ought  to  insist  that  in  pro- 
portion as  the  work  in  any  business  or  workshop  becomes 
mechanical,  there  should  be  provided,  in  the  interests  of 
the  individual  workers  and  every  one  else  concerned,  such 
means  as  will  enable  the  wits  dulled  by  routine  to  be 
sharpened  and  the  sleeping  spirit  awakened.  Gilbreth, 
it  will  be  remembered,  instituted  a  Reading  Box  system 
in  his  works  by  which  he  secured  marked  alertness  of 
mind  among  his  employees.  Welfare  workers,  works 
committees,  and  managers  will  be  called  on  in  the  future 
to  concentrate  on  the  problems  not  only  of  aiding  speedily 
a  recovery  from  fatigue,  but  also  upon  the  closely  related 
task  of  preserving  among  the  workers  an  open  outlook 
and  a  vivacity  and  keenness  of  interest  in  all  the  pro- 
gressive developments  of  industry. 

At  the  basis  of  all  interest  in  invention  is  the  powerful 
human  instinctive  tendency  to  curiosity,  which  we  have 
refrained  from  mentioning  till  now.  This  natural  impulse, 
which  is  so  strong  in  young  children  and  in  the  higher 


THE   CREATIVE   IMPULSE   IN   INDUSTRY    227 

animals — rabbits  and  other  poorly  endowed  or  timid,  de- 
fenceless creatures  alone  lack  it  to  any  extent — seems  in 
modern  life  either  to  atrophy  or  else  assume  a  pathological 
form  among  the  mass  of  our  people.  At  all  costs  natural 
curiosity  must  be  developed  and  refined,  since  it  is  the 
manifestation  of  the  human  spirit  in  one  of  its  most  pro- 
mising forms.  It  is  an  important  function  of  education 
to  stimulate  a  rational  curiosity,  but  education  for  90  per 
cent,  of  our  children  has  up  till  to-day  ceased  at  the  age 
of  fourteen,  and  the  heroic  few  who  have  attended  the 
continuation  schools  in  the  past  have  been  too  tired 
after  their  day's  labour  to  learn,  as  their  teachers  have 
been  too  tired  to  teach. 

Happily,  with  the  prospect  of  the  coming  into  operation 
of  the  new  Education  Act  for  the  compulsory  day  training 
of  youths  up  to  the  age  of  eighteen  there  is  occasion  for 
hope.  The  only  difficulty  we  foresee  will  be  that  of  keeping 
steadily  in  view  in  the  organization  of  continuation  schools 
the  double  aim  and  ideal  of  an  education  which  will  supply 
both  technical  skill  and  general  culture.  Provision  is 
made  in  the  Act  for  boys  and  girls  to  attend  schools  inside 
the  works  at  which  they  are  employed,  and  for  education 
committees  to  conduct  schools  outside.  At  the  moment 
the  works  school  is  looked  upon  with  suspicion  by  organized 
labour,  because  it  is  assumed  that  its  main  purpose  must 
always  be  to  turn  out  routine  workers  fit  for  one  or  two 
semi-skilled  tasks,  but  deficient  in  general  intelligence  and 
character  ;  while  the  outside  school,  owing  to  the  influence 
of  labour  leaders  and  "  reformers  "  who  have  little  or 
no  sympathy  with  vocational  training,  threatens  to  be 
conducted  upon  lines  which  will  be  much  too  general. 
Though  each  type  has  its  legitimate  sphere,  their  respec- 
tive aims,  unless  harmonized  each  with  the  other,  will  prove 
largely  sterile.  The  Labour  Party's  Advisory  Committee 
which  studied  the  general  question  reported  that  "  works 
schools  ought  not  to  be  recognized,"  and  that  "  many 
employers  will  aim  at  using  their  control  of  the  schools 
to  turn  a  continued  education  into  a  narrow  and  special- 


228    PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

ized  training  for  the  branch  of  industry  in  which  they 
are  interested."  Sceptical  employers,  on  the  other  hand, 
see  little  that  promises  to  be  concretely  useful  in  the 
establishment  of  schools  for  the  general  education  of  their 
workers.  Yet  it  should  not  be  difficult  for  the  new  Whit  ley 
Works  Committees  to  keep  a  watchful  eye  upon  the 
works  school ;  while  it  is  certain  that  schools  which  are 
too  divorced  in  interest  from  industry  will  be  forced 
to  reform  themselves  if  they  are  to  retain  their  vitality, 
for  growing  youth  will  only  take  spontaneously  to  the 
type  of  education  which  it  sees  to  be  intimately  connected 
with  its  vocational  ambitions.  Considerable  opportunities 
for  self-determination  and  self-government  will  also  be 
necessary.  Adolescent  education  should,  then,  give  us 
both  good  citizens  and  skilled  workers. 

In  connection  with  the  vocational  training  of  youth  we 
shall  probably  see  in  all  large  works  the  appointment  of 
apprentice  masters  charged  with  the  duty  of  supervising 
the  workshop  training  and  education  of  the  young' people 
employed.  There  is  an  urgent  need  of  the  rare  type  of 
man  who  understands  the  needs  of  industry  as  well  as 
those  of  individuals.  Such  a  man  will  assist  the  boys 
under  him  to  develop  those  all-round  qualities  of  character 
and  ability  on  which  their  capacity  to  succeed  ultimately 
in  positions  of  responsibility  so  much  depends.  From 
the  reports  of  work  done  in  properly  arranged  courses  of 
study  and  under  responsible  technical  instructors  he  will 
derive  much  useful  knowledge,  which  he  can  apply  with 
benefit  to  all  concerned.  Part  of  his  practical  service  to 
management  will  lie  in  his  power  to  advise  in  the  selection 
of  the  right  men  for  specific  posts  which  fall  vacant. 

There  is,  indeed,  room  for  a  new  type  of  apprenticeship 
according  to  the  terms  of  which  the  boy  or  girl  engages 
to  give  his  or  her  services  in  return  for  education  and 
training  and  an  agreed  salary,  the  understanding  being 
that  it  shall  be  left  to  the  apprentice  master  and  the 
apprentice  to  map  out  between  them  the  career  which  the 
abilities  of  the  latter  and  the  possibilities  of  the  industry 


THE   CREATIVE   IMPULSE   IN   INDUSTRY    229 

— and  these  will  be  extraordinarily  varied  in  a  large  factory 
or  workshop — will  together  determine.  Under  the  old 
apprenticeship  system  the  boy  could  learn  with  fair  speed 
a  single  trade  ;  under  the  new  system  there  need  be  no 
limit  to  the  skill  and  knowledge  which  may  be  acquired. 
In  view  of  the  tendency  of  present-day  firms  to  pay 
reasonable  salaries  to  apprentices  there  should  no  longer 
be  a  disinclination  on  the  part  of  parents  to  make  some 
financial  sacrifice  in  order  to  aid  their  children  to  gain  the 
best  skill  and  knowledge  humanly  possible.  Often  the 
apprentice  master  will  discover  that  a  youth  will  be  best 
trained  for  the  mastery  of  one  definite  trade,  but  sometimes 
he  will  decide  that  the  experience  of  a  variety  of  trades  is 
advisable  as  a  preliminary  to  the  appointment  to  a  post 
of  responsibility. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  practicability  of 
continued  education  or  apprenticeship,  we  may  be  toler- 
ably sure  that  they  will  form  the  best  offensive  which  we 
can  take  up  against  hooliganism,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  only  serviceable  stimulus  for  the  low-grade  worker. 
With  the  gradual  decrease  in  the  number  of  hours  worked 
daily  the  problem  of  the  economical  and  inspirational 
use  of  leisure  will  become  increasingly  important.  The 
deficiency  of  most  of  our  smaller  factory  towns  in  recrea- 
tional facilities  is  deplorable.  Nothing  but  street-pro- 
menading, pub-lounging,  or  "  picture  "-absorption  seem  to 
be  open  to  the  majority  of  adolescents  during  two-thirds 
of  the  year.  It  should  be  considered  a  disgrace  to  any 
municipality  that  it  is  backward  in  providing  educational 
entertainment  in  public  halls,  libraries,  museums,  concert 
halls,  picture  galleries,  parks,  swimming-baths  and  social 
institutes,  or  in  attempting  to  create  a  public  demand  for 
their  use. 

At  the  other  extreme  of  the  scale  of  organized  industry 
we  find  the  works  manager  and  the  technical  expert. 
These  two  types  of  worker  will  need  in  the  future  an  increas- 
ingly severe  discipline  and  training  to  fit  them  for  the 
fast-developing  complexity  of  their  tasks.  Just  as  the  tools 


230    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

and  processes  of  our  fathers  became  inadequate  as  enter- 
prises grew  in  magnitude,  so  the  simple  administrative 
methods  formerly  in  use  have  long  since  become  obsolete. 
The  demand  for  highly  trained  men  of  initiative  and 
sagacity  will  proceed  at  the  same  pace  as  the  mechaniza- 
tion of  methods  and  processes.  Recently  Lord  Alderley 
declared  that  the  underground  railway  adventure  would 
be  calling,  and  not  with  sure  hope  of  success,  for  men  who 
could  earn  £10,000  a  year  as  organizers.  This  illustra- 
tion gives  force  to  our  point. 

Obviously  the  man  who  is  equipped  for  dealing  effec- 
tively in  a  tactful  and  enterprising  manner  with  problems 
involving  not  only  the  interests  of  his  employers  but  also 
those  of  the  community,  the  trade  unions,  his  rivals,  and 
the  state  officials  will  have  acquired  his  skill  only  after 
a  strenuous  course  of  the  most  varied  experience  and  con- 
centrated training.  In  the  academic  sphere  there  has 
been  heard  from  all  sides  lately  a  cry  for  the  opening  up 
of  an  educational  highway  to  all  from  the  primary  schools 
to  the  university  ;  the  justification  for  the  cry  being  that 
all  boys  and  girls  who  have  the  aptitude  should  be  enabled 
to  take  advantage  of  all  the  possibilities  of  culture  open 
to  them.  Do  we  not  need  a  highway  in  the  world  of 
industry  along  which  our  children  may  pass  as  far  as 
their  abilities  and  character  will  take  them  ?  The  re- 
sponsibilities of  industrial  leaders  are  now  so  great  that 
we  must  look  for  recruits  to  succeed  them  wherever 
ability  which  is  not  the  exclusive  possession  of  any  class 
can  be  found. 

While  our  attention  is  being  centred  upon  the  problems 
of  training  the  apprentices  and  the  experts,  the  average 
worker  must  not  be  left  to  fate.  He,  too,  must  be  given 
opportunities  for  advancement.  Gilbreth  established  the 
"  three  position "  plan  of  promotion  to  stimulate  his 
workers.  This  plan  ensures  that  every  workman  has 
three  functions  which  he  performs  more  or  less  simultane- 
ously. As  a  worker  he  is  interested  in  the  process  which  he 
is  controlling,  but  he  is  also,  if  he  wishes  to  be,  interested 


THE   CREATIVE   IMPULSE   IN   INDUSTRY    231 

in  another  process  of  a  more  difficult  kind  for  the  per- 
formance of  which  he  is  qualifying  under  an  efficient 
teacher  who  is  already  employed  on  it,  while  he  himself 
acts  as  a  teacher  of  the  man  who  will  follow  him  and  do 
his  work  when  he  passes  on  to  the  new  process.  Thus 
every  process  implicates  three  men,  and  every  man  is 
interested  in  three  processes.  Such  a  plan  is  an  excellent 
example  of  the  kind  of  mechanism  which  we  indicated 
on  page  177  as  being  desirable. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  advance  on  Taylorism  which 
has  been  made  by  the  younger  efficiency  engineers.  At 
this  point  we  may  perhaps  quote  an  illustration  of  the 
outlook  of  the  neo-Taylorist  who  sees  how  much  more 
effective  it  is  to  treat  the  worker  as  a  rational  being 
naturally  curious  instead  of  as  a  creature  motived  mechani- 
cally by  self-interest.  Mr.  Robert  Wolf,  in  a  paper  read 
before  the  Taylor  Society  in  March,  1917,  described  how 
he  increased  the  efficiency  of  a  paper-manufacturing  pro- 
cess by  an  appeal  to  the  rational  interest  and  curiosity 
of  his  workmen. 

He  found  that  it  was  necessary  at  a  certain  stage  of 
manufacture  to  leave  on  a  low  pressure  for  three  minutes 
in  order  to  extract  the  maximum  amount  of  moisture 
from  the  paper  pulp. 

As  long  as  the  foremen  kept  constantly  after  their  men  (he  said),1 
and  vigilantly  followed  them  up,  we  obtained  some  slight  increase 
in  the  test,  but  it  required  a  constant  urging  upon  our  part  to 
focus  the  attention  of  the  men  upon  this  three  minute  time  of  low 
pressure.  We  finally  realized  that  in  order  to  get  the  results  we 
were  after  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  produce  a  desire  upon  the 
part  of  the  men  to  do  this  work  in  the  proper  way." 

Mr.  Wolf  then  tells  us  how  by  an  appeal  to  the  human 
tendency  to  rivalry,  enforced  through  posting  up  in  a 
conspicuous  place  the  weekly  order  of  efficiency  among  the 
men,  he  secured  an  improvement  of  from  42  to  60  per 
cent.  Then  he  tried  the  simple  expedient  of  explaining 

1  Bulletin  of  the  Taylor  Society,  March,   1917. 


232    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

in  detail  the  technique  of  the  process,  what  the  machine 
meant,  how  efficiency  was  obtained,  and  by  putting  the 
recording  instruments  where  the  men  themselves  could 
inspect  them.  "As  a  result  of  this  our  efficiency  rose 
from  60  per  cent,  to  80  per  cent,  in  less  than  four  weeks, 
and  has  remained  at  80  per  cent,  ever  since." 

REFERENCES 

An   exhaustive   bibliography    of    the   education   of  adolescents   is 
to  be  found  in  Boy  Life  and  Labour :  ARNOLD  FREEMAN. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CONCLUSION 

IN  every  society  and  in  every  age  when  it  happens 
that  the  many-sided  life  of  a  people  is  being  developed 
in  organic  harmony,  nourished  and  enriched  through 
its  attachments  to  what  is  vital  in  the  traditions  and 
culture  of  its  past,  and  serenely  confident  of  its  ability 
to  exploit  for  human  use  the  emergencies  of  its  future, 
science  and  industry  are  to  be  seen  working  together 
in  effective  unity.  But  when  civilization  and  culture 
begin  to  decay,  the  currents  of  life  and  of  learning  fall 
gradually  apart  and  take  diverse  directions  :  learning 
becomes  sterile,  being  almost  wholly  abstracted  from 
regenerating  concrete  reality,  while  life  frequently  be- 
comes blind  to  the  inevitableness  of  a  disaster  which  it 
lacks  the  foresight  to  avoid. 

In  the  present  critical  epoch  of  world-construction, 
therefore,  nothing  is  more  imperatively  urgent  than  that 
our  leaders  and  teachers  in  every  sphere  of  influence 
should  emphasize  the  importance,  and  emphasize  it 
repeatedly,  of  a  wholehearted  working  partnership  and 
sympathy  between  well-grounded  knowledge  and  vigorous 
practice.  Each  is  supremely  capable  of  vitalizing  and 
revitalizing  the  spirit  of  the  other. 

It  is  when,  for  example,  the  engineer,  the  gardener, 
and  the  doctor  are  able  to  generalize  soundly  from  the 
rich  accumulation  of  their  practical  experience,  and  so 
connect  it  up  with  the  master  principles  of  organized 
science,  and  the  artist,  the  scholar  and  the  teacher  are 


234    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

able  to  test  frequently  the  validity  and  the  practica- 
bility of  their  theories  and  principles  by  coming  sharply 
into  contact  with  everyday  life,  that  we  have  the  ripest 
conditions  of  a  healthy  social  growth  and  the  conse- 
quent possibility  of  a  happy  cross-fertilization,  destined 
to  bear  the  richest  fruit,  between  action  and  thought. 

Here  in  England  there  is  fortunately  little  fear  of  learn- 
ing becoming  merely  academic,  or  of  industry  and  commerce 
growing  short-sighted,  yet  frequently  it  will  be  worth 
while  to  point  out  the  obvious  truth  that  study  divorced 
from  practice  may  make  a  man  or  woman  learned  in  his 
or  her  occupation,  but  never  remarkable  either  for  wise 
common  sense  or  unusual  practical  insight ;  while  an  ex- 
clusively practical  training  may  make  a  worker  skilful, 
but  it  will  usually  produce  nothing  but  skill  of  a  routine 
kind  incapable  of  originality  or  inventiveness,  or  indeed 
of  any  rational  understanding  of  the  scientific  principles 
on  which  it  is  based. 

But  from  the  union  of  theory  and  practice,  of  learning 
and  skill,  of  science  and  industry — and  from  this  source 
alone — we  shall  obtain  the  proper  explosive  mixture 
for  the  engines  of  civilization  and  progress.  Or,  to 
put  it  differently,  science,  like  the  phoenix  of  old,  cannot 
for  ever  remain  aloft  in  the  immortal  heavens  and  pre- 
serve unimpaired  her  mighty  energies  ;  she  must  some- 
times descend  into  the  fires  of  industry  to  be  re-born  and 
re-energized  for  the  renewal  of  her  enterprising  flights 
into  ever  fresh  spheres  of  invention.  And  the  industrial 
commonwealth  cannot  be  nourished  on  bread  alone. 

John  Stuart  Mill  tells  us  of  a  Scotch  manufacturer  who 
procured  from  England,  at  a  high  rate  of  wages,  a  work- 
ing dyer  famous  for  producing  fine  colours  almost  beyond 
imitation.  This  manufacturer  wished  his  own  workmen 
to  be  taught  to  acquire  the  same  skill. 

'  The  foreman  came,  but  his  mode  of  proportioning 
the  ingredients — in  which  lay  the  secret  of  the  effects 
he  produced — was  by  taking  them  up  in  handfuls,  while 
the  common  method  was  to  weigh  them.  The  manufac- 


CONCLUSION  235 

turer  sought  to  make  him  turn  his  handling  system  into 
an  equivalent  weighing  system,  that  the  general  prin- 
ciple of  his  peculiar  mode  of  proceeding  might  be  ascer- 
tained. This,  however,  the  man  found  himself  quite 
unable  to  do,  and  therefore  could  impart  his  skill  to  no- 
body, as  he  had  never  generalized  the  grounds  on  which 
he  acted  in  his  own  mind,  nor  expressed  them  in  lan- 
guage." 

In  short,  his  skill  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  trained 
engineer,  craftsman  or  artist  was,  after  all,  of  a  narrow 
common-place  routine  type,  in  spite  of  the  unique  ex- 
cellence of  its  development. 

Now,  while  it  may  truly  be  said  to-day  that  in  many 
important  particulars  we  have  transcended  such  rule- 
of -thumb  skill  in  our  methods  of  industrial  organization , 
it  will  hardly  be  denied  by  the  majority  of  observers 
that  in  most  fields  of  effort — in  the  work  of  the  individual 
labourer  at  the  bench,  of  the  machine  operator  in  the 
factory,  of  the  clerk  in  the  office,  of  the  works  manager 
in  the  control  of  his  department,  of  the  employer  in  the 
organization  of  his  business,  and  of  the  statesman  re- 
sponsible for  the  good  government  of  a  nation — there  is 
still  an  unduly  great  amount  of  what  cannot  be  called 
by  any  more  laudable  name  than  mere  rule-of-thumb 
routine  skill,  of  exactly  the  same  type  as  that  displayed 
by  John  Stuart  Mill's  working  dyer  (yet  seldom  so  won- 
derfully developed),  a  type  of  skill  dependent  for  its 
quality  on  sheer  length  of  experience. 

In  the  invention  of  machines  and  "  labour-saving " 
devices  we  have  made  notable  progress  ;  in  the  recon- 
struction of  industry  as  an  agent  for  increasing  human 
skill  and  well-being  we  have  no  more  than  begun  our 
apprentice  period  of  learning.  As  Professor  Patrick 
Geddes  has  so  strikingly  said  : — 

Our  industrial  age  in  its  beginnings,  and  indeed  too  long  in  its 
continuance,  turned  upon  getting  up  coal  almost  anyhow,  to  run 
machines  almost  anyhow,  to  produce  cheap  products,  to  maintain 
too  cheap  people  almost  anyhow — and  these  to  get  up  more  coal,. 


236     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

more  steam,  more  machinery,  and  more  people,  still  almost  any- 
how, and  to  call  the  result  "  progress  of  wealth  and  population." 
Such  swift  multiplication  of  the  quantity  of  life  with  corresponding 
swift  exhaustion  of  the  material  resources  on  which  this  life  de- 
pends, has  been  too  much — as  our  coal  economists  now  and  then 
sternly  remind  us — like  that  of  the  mould  upon  a  jam-pot,  which 
•spreads  marvellously  for  a  season,  until  there  is  at  length  a  crowded 
and  matted  crust  of  fungus-city  full  of  thirsty  life  and  laden  with 
innumerable  spores,  but  no  jam  left. 

The  past   one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  industrial 
effort  was  a  period  during  which  all  but  a  few  of    our 
manufacturers  and  business  men  seemed  to  be  without 
any  steady  synoptic  view  of  the  probable  effects  of  the 
complex  forces  which  were  operating  among  and  around 
them.     It  is  to-day  only  that  the  vision  of  an  ordered 
and    progressive   community  in   harmony   with   its   own 
most  enlightened  activities  is  being  satisfactorily  focused ; 
to-day  only  are  we  beginning  to  realize,  for  example,  that 
the  shining  Utopias  of  those  great  dreamers  who  have 
either   been    out    of   sympathy  with   the   movements   of 
contemporary  industrial  life,  or  else  never  contemplated 
their  possibility,  are  destined  to  remain  unfulfilled  for  ever. 
Modern  large-scale  industry,  which  many  such  Utopias 
were    planned    to    obviate,    is    no    social    malady,     as 
sentimentalists    are    often    tempted    to    believe,  but    an 
essential  organ  of  our  civilization  which  it  is  our  duty 
to  sustain  in  fullest  working  efficiency.     Nevertheless,  if 
no  t/topia,  then  a  Et7topia  may  one  day  arrive,  positively 
if  gradually,  provided  we  go  forward  with  patience  and 
courage,  quick  to  seize  at  the  ripe  moment  the  maturing 
fruits  of  present  experience,  but  slow  to  part  with  the 
well-proved  treasures  of  the  past.1 

The    present    vibrates    with    hope.     Almost    daily    we 

1  Mr.  Belloc  has  recently  reminded  us  in  this  connection  that 
nations  and  individuals  throughout  history  have  hardly  ever  ap- 
preciated their  opportunities  till  it  was  too  late  to  use  them  fully. 
In  the  late  war,  for  example,  what  tremendous  differences  might 
fcave  been  made  if  the  Allies  or  their  enemies  "  had  only  known  " 
this  or  that. 


CONCLUSION  23T 

hear  of  the  new  spirit  in  industry,  not  yet  fully  incarnate, 
it  is  true,  yet  vigorously  alive  nevertheless.  It  would 
indeed  seem  that,  with  skilled  judgment  and  co-opera- 
tive goodwill,  the  currents  of  universal  endeavour  which 
long  enough  have  been  running  divergently — the  endea- 
vour of  the  engineer  to  increase  output  and  cheapen  cost, 
of  the  worker  to  improve  his  material  well-being  and 
status,  and  of  the  social  reformer  and  the  statesman  to 
establish  firmly  the  foundation  of  the  Eutopia  to  be — 
may  haply  be  guided  at  no  distant  date  into  a  single 
channel  of  movement. 

To  ensure  this  consummation  of  our  ideal  hope,  the 
scientific  management  about  which  we  have  heard  so- 
much  in  the  last  decade  must  be  made  scientific  in  the 
fullest  sense,  so  that  it  will  embrace  a  sound  knowledge, 
not  only  of  the  machinery  of  production  and  distribution, 
but  also  of  the  best  methods  of  organizing  beneficently 
the  natural  impulses  and  energies  of  the  workers,  and  of 
the  most  effective  means,  too,  of  stimulating  and  withal 
satisfying  the  deepest  needs  of  us  all.  Moreover,  both 
the  articulate  and  the  inarticulate  just  aspirations  of 
our  newly  awakened  democracy  must  be  patiently  culti- 
vated, yet  kept  within  wise  control  till  the  workers  in 
every  branch  of  industry  have  everywhere  learnt  some- 
thing of  the  extent,  significance  and  responsibility  of  the 
tasks  which  confront  the  technician,  the  works  manager 
and  the  administrator. 

It  already  seems  to  many  observers  that  we  are  fast 
moving  towards  that  perfection  of  the  machinery  of 
production  and  distribution  which  will  be  fundamental 
to  the  structure  of  our  coming  Utopia  ;  but  who  will 
dare  suggest  that,  even  in  the  most  imperfect  measure, 
we  have  yet  learnt  to  organize  as  interdependent  factors 
in  the  various  trades  and  industries  the  vital  activities 
of  the  workers  ? 

While,  to  great  numbers  still,  does  not  the  idea  of 
a  day  when  world-wide  industry  and  the  willing  service 
of  humanity  will  signify  the  same  thing,  when  every 


238     PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF  INDUSTRY 

occupation  will  be  the  basis  of  an  honourable  vocation — 
so  that  all  our  work  will  allow  for  genuine  creative  self- 
expression — seem  suggestive  merely  of  a  vain  fluttering 
of  the  wings  of  desire  about  the  barred  portals  of  a  heaven 
utterly  beyond  our  leaden  human  reach  ? 

Happily  the  problems  which  are  here  hinted  at  are 
being  faced  in  a  resolute  manner  to-day  by  the  younger 
generation  of  efficiency  engineers  and  works  managers 
who  have  passed  through  their  apprenticeship  to  Taylor- 
ism  and  are  now  taking  up  a  stronger  position  beyond 
it.  These  neo-Taylorists  have,  indeed,  discovered  that, 
while  exclusive  attention  to  the  perfection  of  the  mechanics 
of  industry  will  often  produce  better  material  goods  in 
ever-increasing  quantities,  it  will  not  necessarily  of  it- 
self produce  either  better  bodies  or  better  brains  among 
the  producing  classes. 

Thus  Mr.  A.  P.  M.  Fleming,  one  of  our  keenest  indus- 
trial thinkers,  said  recently  that  that  which  is  ethically 
right  is  now  seen  to  be  economically  desirable,  and  that 
"if  we  can  seize  the  opportunity  that  is  now  presented 
...  a  measure  of  life  and  well-being  will  be  assured  to  the 
community  which  it  has  never  previously  known." 

Much  depends  on  the  skill  of  such  men,  for  they  have 
caught  glimpses  of  the  profound  truth  that  somehow 
beyond  our  present  finite  comprehension,  the  conditions 
of  a  perfected  system  of  production  and  distribution,  of 
a  perfected  organization  of  human  energy,  and  of  a  per- 
fected humanity  itself,  are  indissolubly  bound  up  together. 
It  is  out  of  a  vital  faith  in  this  truth  that  the  new  spirit 
in  industry  has  sprung  into  being. 


INDEX 


Ability- 
calculating,  92-93 
language,  93~96 
Abnormality,  139-140 
Accidents,  37-39,  44~46 
Adaptability,  118-120,  199 
Adrenin,  37 
Alcoholism,  203 
Aptitudes,  vocational,  71-97 
Arbitration,  industrial,  146 
Assembling,  machine-,  54-55 
Atmospheric  conditions,  35 
Attitude,  mental,  42-43 

Bonuses,  105-109 
Bricklaying,  5°~53 
Building  guild,  212-213 
Bureaucracy,  216 

Ca'  canny,  134,  139 
Calculating  ability,  92-93 
Cinema,  201-202 
City  life,  161-163 
Class  consciousness,  137,  182 
Combination  laws,  143,  170-171 
Conflict,  industrial,  142,  146 
Construction    of    mental    tests, 

83-97 

Conversation,  164 
Co-operation,  industrial,  219-224 
Co-partnership,  118,  210-214 
Craftsmanship,  191-197 
Curiosity,  231-232 

Dexterity,  91-92 
Direct  action,  139 


Disease,  occupational,  34 
Disharmony,  142,  146 

Education,  135-136,  225-232 
Ergograph,  31-32 

Fatigue,  21-48 

elimination  of,  50-60 
Fear,  157 
Foreman,  112-114 
Functional  management,  1 1 1 

Gambling,  203 
Gregariousness,  160 
Group  activities,  165 
Group-mind,  138-139 
Guild  socialism,  219-220 

Ideals,  industrial,  198,  206-209 
Incentives,  153 
Industrial  revolution,  170 
Inferiority  complex,  148-150 
Inner  vat  ion,  124 
Instincts,  174-186 
Instruction  cards,  no 
Integration,  145 
Intelligence,  76-97 
Interest  and  ability,  74-75 

Labour — 

attitude,  128-140 

solidarity,  129 

turnover,  120-121 
Language  ability,  93-96 
Legislation,  34 
Length  of  working  day,  28-29 


240    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEMS   OF   INDUSTRY 


Lighting,  39,  5 6 
Lightning  strikes,  218 

Mechanization  of  labour,  103-104 
Mental  tempo,  78-80,  122 
Monotony,  117-127 
Morale,  41-43 
Motion  study,  61-66 
Mutual  aid,  155 

Noise,  35-36 

Organisms  and  societies,  137 
Outings,  204 
Overtime,  30-31 
Ownership,  144,  177-181 

Parliament,  170 
Paternalism,  130-131 
Physique,  national,  194 
Piece-rates,  105 
Play,  197  et  seq. 
Promotion  scheme,  230-231 
Psychography,  90 
Psychology,  11-17 

Reactions,  defence,  203-204 
Reading  boxes,  58 
Recreation,  200  et  seq. 
Regression,  175-176 
Repetition  work,  115-127,   193- 

196 

Rest  pauses,  25-28,  43-44 
Rivalry,  176-177 
Route-ing,  17,  no-ni 


Sabotage,  186 
Safety  first,  45-46 
Scientific  management,  102  efseq, 
Sectionalism,  217-218 
Self-assertion,  181-182 
Self-consciousness,  181 
Self-interest,  154-155 
Solidarity,  166 

Speed  and  monotony,  121-122 
Springs  of  conduct,  153  et  seq. 
State  socialism,  215-216 
Strike  ballots,  167 
Submissiveness,  183-188 
Suspicion,  132-133 
Syndicalism,  180,  217-218 

Tactful  innovations,  134 

Temperature,  35 

Tempo,  mental,  78-80,  122 

Tests,  vocational,  76-97 

Tools,  57 

Trade  unions,  168-173 

Unemployment,  108 
Unrest,  industrial,  137  et  seq. 

Variability,  organic,  33 
Vocational  aptitudes,  67-97 

Wage  systems,  105-109 
Welfare  work,  59-60 
Whitley  Councils,  219-222 
Woman  worker,  187-190 
Work  curves,  24 
Works  schools,  227-228 


Printed  in  Great  Britain  by 
UNWIN  BROTHERS,   LIMITED,   THE  GRESHAM  PRESS,   WOKING  AND  LONDON 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 
University  of  California  Library 
or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

•  2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  callina 
(510)642-6753 

•  1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing 
books  to  NRLF 

•  Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made 
4  days  prior  to  due  date 


DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 

1  2  2004 


FEB  1  5  2006 


DD20  6M  9-03 


YC  24397 


479  7  / 


UNIVERSITY  QF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


